S  H 
381 
S8 
MAIN 


UC-NRLF 


SB    25    flbE 


WHALE      FISHERY     OF 
NEW     ENGLAND 


AN  ACCOUNT, 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  SOME  INTERESTING  AND  AMUSING 

ANECDOTES,  OF  THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  AN  INDUSTRY 

WHICH  HAS  MADE  NEW  ENGLAND  FAMOUS 

THROUGHOUT   THE    WORLD 


PRINTED    FOR   THE 

STATE    STREET    TRUST    COMPANY 
BOSTON,   MASS. 


COPYRIGHTED  1915  *     \\)J 

BY   THE  J  V 

STATE  STREET  TRUST  COMPANY 


The  vignette  on 
the  title-page  is  repro- 
duced from  a  print  of  the 
ship   "Maria"   of  New  Bedford, 
which  in  1853  was  the  oldest  whaleship 
owned   in    the    United    States.       Her    registry 
was   dated  1782.      She    was  built  in   Pembroke,  now 
called   Hanson,    for    a    privateer   during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  was  bought  in  the  year  1783  by  William  Rotch  of  Nan- 
tucket,  afterwards  of  New  Bedford.     At  one  time  she  was  owned 
by  Samuel  Rodman,  and  also  by  the  Russells.    In  construction 
she  was  the  typical  whaleship  of  her  time.    It  is  said 
that  she  earned  for  her  owners  $250,000  and  made 
twenty-five  voyages,  bringing   back    a    full 
cargo  each  time.     The  tailpiece  is  from 
a    very    old    print   which   repre- 
sents whaling  in  the  seven- 
teenth century. 


Compiled,  arranged  and  printed 

under  the  direction  of  the 

Walton  Advertising  and  Printing  Company 

Boston,  Mass. 


FOREWORD 

THE  people  of  New  England  have  long  been  interested  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  the  sea,  and  members  of  many  of  her  best-known  families 
have  commanded  its  merchant  ships  and  whalers. 

The  State  Street  Trust  Company  has  always  endeavored  to  encour- 
age an  interest  in  historical  matters,  and  it  is  hoped  that  this  pamphlet, 
the  ninth  of  the  series,  which  deals  with  one  of  our  earliest  industries, 
will  be  interesting  to  the  Company's  depositors  and  also  to  the  general 
public.  It  is  sent  to  you  with  the  compliments  of  the  Company,  which 
for  over  twenty  years  has  tried  to  serve  the  interests  of  its  depositors. 

For  valuable  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this  pamphlet  the 
Trust  Company  desires  to  acknowledge  its  indebtedness  to  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Sharp  and  Sidney  Chase,  residents  of  Nantucket  (the  latter 
being  a  descendant  of  the  Starbucks,  Coffins  and  Husseys),  to  Z.  W. 
Pease,  Frank  Wood  and  George  H.  Tripp,  all  of  New  Bedford  (Mr. 
Tripp  being  the  librarian  of  the  Free  Public  Library),  Llewellyn  How- 
land,  Frederick  P.  Fish,  Charles  H.  Taylor,  Jr.,  Roy  C.  Andrews  and 
Madison  Grant  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New 
York,  D.  A.  deMenocal,  J.  E.  Lodge  and  Kojiro  Tornita  of  the  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  and  George  F.  Lord,  secretary  of  the  Boston  Stock 
Exchange.  Assistance  has  also  been  rendered  by  the  officers  of  the 
Trust  Company. 

The  following  books  have  been  used  as  references  and  contain  valu- 
able information  and  many  interesting  anecdotes: — 

"The  Story  of  New  England  Whalers,"  by  John  R.  Spears. 

"History  of  the  American  Whale  Fishery,"  by  Alexander  Starbuck. 

"A  History  of  the  American  Whale  Fishery,"  by  Walter  S.  Tower. 

"  Moby  Dick,  or  the  White  Whale,"  by  Herman  Melville. 

"Whaling  Ventures  and  Adventures,"  by  George  H.  Tripp. 

"Whaling  and  Fishing,"  by  Charles  Nordhoff. 

"Miriam  Coffin,"  by  Col.  Joseph  C.  Hart. 

"The  Gam,"  by  Capt.  Charles  Henry  Robbins. 

"Eighteen  Months  on  a  Greenland  Whaler,"  by  Joseph  P.  Faulkner. 

"Arctic  Whaleman  and  Whaling,"  by  Rev.  Lewis  Holmes. 

"Cruise  of  the  Cachalot,"  by  Frank  T.  Bullen. 

"  History  of  Nantucket,"  by  Edward  K.  Godfrey. 

"History  of  Nantucket,"  by  Obed  Macy. 

"History  of  Nantucket,"  by  Douglas-Lithgow. 

"The  Glacier's  Gift"  (Nantucket),  by  Eva  C.  G.  Folger. 

"History  of  New  Bedford,"  by  Daniel  Ricketson. 

"The  Perils  and  Romance  of  Whaling,"  by  G.  Kobbe. 

"The  Whale  and  its  Captors,"  by  Rev.  Henry  T.  Cheever. 

"Incidents  of  a  Whaling  Voyage,"  by  Olmstead. 

"  Nimrod  of  the  Sea,"  by  Captain  Davis. 

"Hunting  the  Biggest  of  all  Big  Game,"  by  Roy  C.  Andrews. 

"Four  Years  Aboard  a  Whaleship,"  by  William  B.  Whitecar,  Jr. 

"Etchings  of  a  Whaling  Cruise,"  by  J.  Ross  Browne. 

"Bark  Kathleen,  sunk  by  a  Whale,"  by  Capt.  T.  H.  Jenkins. 

"Peter  the  Whaler,"  by  William  H.  G.  Kingston. 

"The  Fisheries  and  Fishery  Industries  of  the  United  States," 

by  George  Brown  Goode,  prepared  for  the  United  States  Tenth  Census. 


399528 


i 


Model  of  the  whaleship  "Henry,"  made  at  sea  in  1847.      This  model  stands 
in  the  main  banking  rooms  of  the  Company,  and  may  be  seen  by  visitors. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

THE  WHALE 7 

ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  WHALING 8 

EARLY  NEW  ENGLAND  WHALING 13 

NANTUCKET 16 

NEW  BEDFORD      23 

OTHER  NEW  ENGLAND  WHALING  PORTS 33 

ABOARD  A  "BLUBBER  HUNTER" 35 

WHALING  IMPLEMENTS  AND  WHALEBOATS      37 

DIFFERENT  SPECIES  OF  WHALES  AND  THEIR  PRODUCTS     ....  41 

METHODS  OF  CAPTURE  AND  "TRYING  OUT" 45 

THE  PERILS  OF  WHALING 51 

THE  "CATALPA"  EXPEDITION .  V  .  58 

DECLINE  OF  WHALING  AND  THE  CAUSES 60 

WHALING  OF  TO-DAY  .  62 


The  illustrations  used  in  this  brochure  are  from  rare  prints  in  the  possession 
of  the  Dartmouth  Historical  Society  and  the  Free  Public  Library  of  New  Bed- 
ford, H.  S.  Hutchinson  &  Co.,  Charles  H.  Taylor,  Jr.,  Roy  C.  Andrews  of  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History  of  New  York,  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co., 
and  others. 


"Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland,  nor  the  activity  of  France, 
nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of  the  English  enterprise,  ever 
carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy  industry  to  the  extent  to 
which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  recent  People;  a  People  who  are  still, 
as  it  were,  but  in  the. gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone,  of 
manhood." — From  a  speech  by  Edmund  Burke  before  Parliament  in  1775. 


THE  WHALE 


;Oh,  the  rare  old  Whale,  'mid  storm  and  gale, 

In  his  ocean  home  will  be 
A  giant  in  might  where  might  is  right, 

And  King  of  the  boundless  sea." 

From  "  Moby  Dick." 


|O  ANIMAL  in  prehistoric  or  historic  times  has  ever  exceeded 
"  the  whale,  in  either  size  or  strength,  which  explains  perhaps 
its  survival  from  ancient  times.  Few  people  have  any  idea 
of  the  relative  size  of  the  whale  compared  with  other  ani- 
mals. A  large  specimen  weighs  about  ninety  tons,  or  thirty 
times  as  much  as  an  elephant,  which  beside  a  whale  appears  about  as 
large  as  a  dog  compared  to  an  elephant.  It  is  equivalent  in  bulk  to 
one  hundred  oxen,  and  outweighs  a  village  of  one  thousand  people.  If 
cut  into  steaks  and  eaten,  as  in  Japan,  it  would  supply  a  meal  to  an 
army  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men. 


A  French  lithograph  showing  the  comparative  sizes  of  a  whale,  an  elephant 
a  horse,  and  a  giraffe. 

Whales  have  often  exceeded  one  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  George 
Brown  Goode,  in  his  report  on  the  United  States  Fisheries,  mentions  a 
finback  having  been  killed  that  was  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  long. 
A  whale's  head  is  sometimes  thirty-five  feet  in  circumference,  weighs 
thirty  tons,  and  has  jaws  twenty  feet  long,  which  open  thirty  feet  wide 
to  a  mouth  that  is  as  large  as  a  room  twenty  feet  long,  fifteen  feet 
high,  nine  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  and  two  feet  wide  at  the  top.  A 
score  of  Jonahs  standing  upright  would  not  have  been  unduly  crowded 
in  such  a  chamber. 

The  heart  of  a  whale  is  the  size  of  a  hogshead.     The  main  blood 


8  "  WHALE'  FISft£RY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

artery  is  a  foot  in  diameter,  and  ten  to  fifteen  gallons  of  blood  pour  out 
at  every  pulsation.  The  tongue  of  a  right  whale  is  equal  in  weight  to 
ten  oxen,  while  the  eye  of  all  whales  is  hardly  as  large  as  a  cow's,  and  is 
placed  so  far  back  that  it  has  in  direction  but  a  limited  range  of  vision. 
The  ear  is  so  small  that  it  is  difficult  to  insert  a  knitting  needle,  and  the 
brain  is  only  about  ten  inches  square.  The  head,  or  "case,"  contains 
about  five  hundred  barrels,  of  ten  gallons  each,  of  the  richest  kind  of 
oil,  called  spermaceti. 

One  of  these  giants,  when  first  struck  by  a  harpoon,  can  go  as  fast  as 
a  steam  yacht,  twenty  or  twenty-five  miles  an  hour,  but  it  soon  slows 
down  to  its  usual  speed  of  about  twelve  miles,  developing  about  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  horse-power. 

Mr.  Roy  C.  Andrews,  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
New  York,  was  on  a  whaler  ninety  feet  long,  which  struck  a  finback 
whale,  and  he  says  that  for  seven  hours  the  whale  towed  the  vessel, 
with  engines  going  at  full  speed  astern,  almost  as  though  it  had  been 
a  rowboat. 

The  whale's  young  are  about  twelve  feet  long  at  birth,  and  can  swim 
as  soon  as  they  are  born.  So  faithfully  does  the  cow  whale  watch  over 
her  offspring  when  they  are  together  that  she  will  rarely  move  when  at- 
tacked for  fear  of  leaving  the  young  whale  unprotected,  or  of  hurting  it 
if  she  thrashes  round  to  escape  capture.  It  is  believed  that  whales 
sometimes  live  to  attain  the  age  of  eight  hundred  years.  They  sleep 
at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  which  fact  shows  that  they  do  not  inhale 
air  when  asleep,  like  the  warm-blooded  animals,  and  to  help  them  in 
breathing  below  the  surface  they  have  a  large  reservoir  of  blood  to  as- 
sist circulation.  This  spot  is  known  to  whalemen  as  the  "life"  of  the 
whale.  When  "sounding"  to  a  great  depth  it  is  estimated  that  the 
whale  bears  on  its  back  the  weight  of  twenty  battleships.  The  strength 
and  power  of  a  whale  are  described  as  almost  unbelievable. 

ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  WHALING 

Every  one  knows  the  story  of  Jonah;  how  he  was  thrown  overboard 
to  appease  the  gods,  and  how  a  "big  fish"  swallowed  him  and  carried 
him  ashore.  It  will  always  be  a  mooted  question  whether  or  not  the 
big  fish  was  a  whale.  If  it  were  a  whale,  it  is  doubtful  whether  Jonah 
got  any  further  than  its  mouth,  on  account  of  the  smallness  of  a  whale's 
throat.  It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  a  whale  does  not  belong  to  the 
fish  family,  but  is  a  mammal,  and  therefore,  perhaps,  this  great  fish 
mentioned  wasn't  a  whale. 

This  "fishing  on  a  gigantic  scale,"  as  it  has  been  often  termed,  is  of 
very  ancient  origin  and  dates  back  to  890  A.D.,  when  a  Norwegian, 
called  Octhere,  skirted  the  coast  of  Norway  for  whales. 

The  Biscayans,  who  in  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  centuries  became  famous  on  account  of  their  whale  fishery, 
were  the  first  people  to  prosecute  this  industry  as  a  regular  commercial 
pursuit.  In  this  connection  the  French  are  also  mentioned  about 


From  an  old  English  print. 


Whale-hunting  in  Westmannshaven  Bay,  Norway. 
The  Norwegians  were  the  earliest  whalers  of  which  we  have  any  records. 


The  Dutch  boiling  oil  on  shore  in  a  huge  "try-works,"  which  was  the  early 
method  of  preparing  the  oil. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  13 

1261,  using  the  whale  for  food.  Also  the  Icelanders  are  believed  to 
have  whaled  some  time  during  the  twelfth  century.  The  first  reference 
to  English  whaling  appears  during  the  fourteenth  century,  and  by 
statutory  law  the  whale  was  declared  "a  royal  fish."  Another  curious 
law  was  that  the  King,  as  Honorary  Harpooner,  received  the  head,  and 
the  Queen  the  tail  of  all  whales  captured  along  the  English  coast,  which 
is  very  much  like  halving  an  apple,  there  is  so  little  left. 

In  1612  the  Dutch  became  the  leaders  and  were  still  very  active  about 
1680,  employing  two  hundred  and  sixty  ships  and  fourteen  thousand  sea- 
men, and  during  the  last  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  they  furnished 
nearly  all  Europe  with  oil.  To  them  is  attributed  the  improvements 
in  the  harpoon,  the  line,  and  the  lance,  and  to  their  early  prominence 
in  the  industry  we  owe  the  very  name  "whale,"  a  derivation  from  the 
Dutch  and  German  word  "wallen,"  meaning  to  roll  or  wallow.  They 
established  a  whaling  settlement  at  Spitzbergen,  only  eleven  degrees 
from  the  North  Pole,  where  they  boiled  the  oil;  in  fact,  during  the  early 
days  of  whaling  all  nations  "tried  out"  their  oil  on  land.  The  Dutch 
continued  to  be  the  leaders  until  about  1770,  when  the  English  super- 
seded them  owing  to  the  royal  bounties. 

EARLY   NEW  ENGLAND   WHALING 

The  history  of  American  whaling  really  begins  with  the  settlement 
of  the  New  England  Colonies.  When  the  "Mayflower"  anchored  in- 
side of  Cape  Cod,  the  Pilgrims  saw  whales  playing  about  the  ship,  and 
this  was  their  chief  reason  for  settling  there.  It  afterwards  proved  that 
the  products  of  the  whale  formed  an  important  source  of  income  to  the 
settlers  on  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  subject  of  drift,  or  dead  whales  which  were  washed  ashore,  first 
attracted  the  colonists,  and  there  are  numerous  references  to  them  on 
record.  It  was  the  invariable  rule  for  the  government  to  get  one-third, 
the  town  one-third,  and  the  owner  one-third,  and  in  1662  it  was  voted 
that  a  portion  of  every  whale  should  be  given  to  the  church.  The 
whale  fishery  increased  steadily,  so  that  in  1664  Secretary  Randolph 
could  truthfully  write  to  England,  "The  new  Plymouth  colony  made 
great  profit  by  whale  killing."  The  success  of  the  settlers  on  Cape  Cod 
and  elsewhere  encouraged  Salem  to  consider  ways  and  means  of  whal- 
ing; for  as  early  as  1688  one  James  Loper,  of  Salem,  petitioned  the 
Colonial  authorities  for  a  patent  for  making  oil,  and  four  years  later 
some  Salem  whalers  complained  that  Easthamptonites  had  stolen  whales 
that  bore  Salem  harpoons.  As  early  as  1647  whaling  had  become  a 
recognized  industry  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  but  for  some  reason  did  not 
prosper. 

The  first  white  people  to  explore  our  New  England  coasts  discovered 
that  the  Indians  were  ahead  of  them  in  the  pursuit  of  the  whale.  The 
Red  Men  in  canoes  attacked  these  beasts  with  stone-headed  arrows 
and  spears  which  were  attached  to  short  lines.  Usually  wooden  floats 
were  tied  to  the  line,  which  impeded  the  progress  of  the  animal,  and  by 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


15 


frequent  thrusts  these  early  hunters  actually  worried  the  life  out  of 
the  whale. 

Way  mouth's  Journal  of  his  voyage  to  America  in  1605  gives  the 
first  description  of  the  Indian  method  of  whaling  in  canoes  on  the  New 
England  coast  from  November  to  April,  when  spouters  generally 
abounded  there.  "One  especial  thing  is  their  manner  of  killing  the 
whale"  runs  the  quaint  description  "which  they  call  a  powdawe; 
and  will  describe  his  form;  how  he  bloweth  up  the  water;  and  that 
he  is  twelve  fathoms  long:  that  they  go  in  company  of  their  king 


Early  method  of  bringing  whales  on  shore  by  means  of  a  windlass. 

with  a  multitude  of  their  boats;  and  strike  him  with  a  bone  made  in 
fashion  of  a  harping  iron  fastened  to  a  rope,  which  they  make  great 
and  strong  of  the  bark  of  trees,  which  they  veer  out  after  him;  then 
all  their  boats  come  about  him  as  he  riseth  above  water,  with  their 
arrows  they  shoot  him  to  death;  when  they  have  killed  him  and 
dragged  him  to  shore,  they  call  all  their  chief  lords  together,  and  sing 
a  song  of  joy;  and  those  chief  lords,  whom  they  call  sagamores,  divide 
the  spoil  and  give  to  every  man  a  share,  which  pieces  so  distributed,  they 
hang  up  about  their  houses  for  provisions;  and  when  they  boil  them 
they  blow  off  the  fat  and  put  to  their  pease,  maize  and  other  pulse 
which  they  eat." 

The  Esquimaux  at  this  time  were  very  much  more  advanced  than 
the  Indians,  and  showed  their  ingenuity  by  inventing  the  "toggle" 
harpoon,  which  is  in  use  to  this  day,  and  which  was  improved  upon 
in  1848  by  a  Negro  in  New  Bedford  called  Lewis  Temple,  who  made 


16  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

his  fortune  turning  out  irons.  This  harpoon  was  arranged  to  sink 
very  easily  into  the  blubber,  but  when  pulled  out  the  end  turned  at 
right  angles  to  the  shank,  thus  preventing  the  harpoon  from  with- 
drawing. 

Boston  is  mentioned  only  occasionally  in  connection  with  the  Whale 
Fishery.  During  1707  the  Boston  papers  state  that  a  whale  forty 
feet  long  entered  the  harbour  and  was  killed  near  Noddle's  Island, 
and  another  interesting  record  is  in  a  letter  written  in  1724  by  the  Hon. 
Paul  Dudley,  who  mentions  that  he  has  just  received  a  note  from  a 
Mr.  Atkins  of  Boston,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to  go  fishing  for  sperm 
whales.  There  were  many  whaleships  recorded  in  the  Boston  records, 
although  fitting  out  and  sailing  from  other  neighboring  ports. 

NANTUCKET 

A  large  part  of  the  romance  of  whaling  centres  around  the  island 
of  Nantucket  and  its  hardy  seamen.  It  was  from  here  that  the  Red 
Men  first  sallied  out  in  canoes  to  chase  the  whale;  from  here  the  small 
sloops  first  set  out  laden  with  cobblestones,  as  the  story  goes,  to  throw 
at  the  whales  to  see  if  they  were  near  enough  to  risk  a  harpoon.  These 
daring  Nantucketers  were,  in  1791,  the  first  to  sail  to  the  Pacific,  and 
later  on  in  1820  to  the  coast  of  Japan,  and  finally  they  made  their  ships 
known  in  every  harbour  of  the  world.  Thirty  islands  and  reefs  in  the 
Pacific  are  named  after  Nantucket  captains  and  merchants. 

There  is  an  amusing  legend  concerning  the  origin  of  the  island. 
A  giant  was  said  to  be  in  the  habit  of  sleeping  on  Cape  Cod,  because  its 
peculiar  shape  fitted  him  when  he  curled  himself  up.  One  night  he 
became  very  restless  and  thrashed  his  feet  around  so  much  that  he  got 
his  moccasins  filled  with  sand.  In  the  morning  he  took  off  first  one 
moccasin  and  then  the  other,  flinging  their  contents  across  the  sea, 
thus  forming  the  islands  of  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket. 

From  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  the  island,  the  entire  population, 
from  the  oldest  inhabitant  down  to  the  youngest  child,  realized  that 
on  the  whaling  industry  depended  their  livelihood.  A  story  is  told 
of  a  Nantucket  youngster  who  tied  his  mother's  darning  cotton  to 
a  fork,  and,  hurling  it  at  the  cat  as  she  tried  to  escape,  yelled  "Pay  out, 
mother!  Pay  out!  There  she  'sounds'  through  the  window!"  The 
inhabitants  always  alluded  to  a  train  as  "tying  up,"  a  wagon  was 
called  a  "side- wheeler,"  every  one  you  met  was  addressed  as  "captain," 
and  a  horse  was  always  "tackled"  instead  of  harnessed.  The  refrain 
of  an  old  Nantucket  song  runs  as  follows : — 

"So  be  cheery,  my  lads,  let  your  hearts  never  fail, 
While  the  bold  harpooner  is  striking  the  whale!" 

A  young  man  who  had  not  doubled  the  cape  or  harpooned  a  whale 
had  no  chance  of  winning  a  Nantucket,  New  Bedford,  or  New  London 
belle,  and  it  is  stated  as  a  fact  that  the  girls  of  Nantucket  at  one  time 
formed  a  secret  society,  and  one  of  their  pledges  was  never  to  marry 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


17 


a  man  until  he  had  "struck  his  whale."  The  well-known  Nantucket 
novel  "Miriam  Coffin"  tells  of  a  girl  who  made  to  her  two  lovers  a 
condition  of  marriage  that  they  must  first  of  all  undertake  a  whaling 
voyage,  and  that  she  would  wed  the  more  successful  of  the  two.  It 
happened  that  one  was  a  Minister,  and  the  other  was  no  better  adapted 
to  the  whale  fishery;  nevertheless,  both  set  out  to  sea.  The  former 


A  whaler  circling  Cape  Horn. 

was  killed  by  a  whale,  and  the  latter  returned  after  an  absence  of  several 
years,  but  instead  of  claiming  his  bride,  he  tells  her  that  before  going 
he  had  already  made  up  his  mind  that  a  girl  who  made  such  foolish 
propositions  was  no  girl  for  him;  and  so  the  story  ends. 

Many  a  Nantucket  bride  stepped  from  her  home  to  her  husband's 
whaleship  for  a  three-year  voyage  round  Cape  Horn,  which  probably 
suggested  these  verses: — 

"I  asked  a  maiden  by  my  side, 

Who  sighed  and  looked  at  me  forlorn, 
*  Where  is  your  heart?'     She  quick  replied, 
*  Round  Cape  Horn.' 

"I  said,  Til  let  your  fathers  know,' 

To  boys  in  mischief  on  the  lawn; 
They  all  replied,  'Then  you  must  go 
Round  Cape  Horn.' 

"In  fact,  I  asked  a  little  boy 

If  he  could  tell  where  he  was  born; 
He  answered,  with  a  mark  of  joy, 
'Round  Cape  Horn.'" 


18  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Any  one  who  did  not  live  in  Nantucket  was  called  a  foreigner.  To 
show  their  attitude  a  schoolboy  was  asked  to  write  a  thesis  on  Napoleon, 
and  he  began  by  stating  that  "Napoleon  was  a  great  man  and  a  great 
soldier,  but  he  was  an  off-islander."  In  fact,  it  was  an  act  of  con- 
descension for  a  Nantucketer  even  to  shake  hands  with  a  "Main- 
lander,"  and  there  are  many  of  the  older  islanders  to-day  who  have 
never  set  foot  on  any  other  soil. 

Most  of  the  inhabitants  were  Quakers,  and  there  was  a  saying  that  a 
Nantucketer  was  half  Quaker  and  half  sailor.  Though  their  ceme- 
tery contains  about  ten  thousand  graves,  there  are  only  half  a  dozen 
tombstones  in  one  corner  of  the  field.  There  are  no  "Friends"  in 
Nantucket  to-day.  The  following  incident  shows  the  Quaker  thrift, 
to  which  was  due  in  a  great  measure  their  success  in  whaling.  When 
the  first  chaise  was  purchased,  the  owner  was  about  to  take  a  drive  in  it, 
but,  after  a  few  minutes'  deliberation,  decided  it  was  too  progressive, 
and  would  subject  him  to  criticism,  so  he  loaned  it  only  to  invalids  and 
funeral  parties. 

Billy  Clark  was  town  crier,  and  for  forty  years,  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1909,  he  voluntarily  announced  with  a  bell  and  horn  the  ar- 
rival of  all  whalers  and  steamers.  Once  as  he  went  along  ringing,  a 
girl  asked  him  rudely  where  he  got  his  bell,  and  his  reply  was,  "I  got 
my  bell  where  you  got  your  manners, — at  the  'brass  foundry."  Nan- 
tucketers  declare  that  his  death  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  actually 
"blew  his  lungs  away." 

The  Chase  family  has  always  occupied  a  most  prominent  position 
in  the  history  of  the  island.  One  of  the  family  was  Reuben  Chase,  who 
served  under  John  Paul  Jones  on  the  "Ranger,"  and  on  his  death  the 
following  epitaph  was  placed  on  his  tombstone: — 

"Free  from  the  storms  and  gusts  of  human  life, 
Free  from  its  error  and  its  strife,  / 

Here  lies  Reuben  Chase  anchored;  who  stood 
The  sea  of  ebbing  life  and  flowing  misery. 
He  was  not  dandy  rigged,  his  prudent  eye 
Fore-saw  and  took  a  reef  at  fortune's  quickest  flow. 
He  luffed  and  bore  away  to  please  mankind; 
Yet  duty  urged  him  still  to  head  the  wind, 
Rumatic  gusts  at  length  his  masts  destroyed, 
Yet  jury  health  awhile  he  yet  enjoyed, 
Worn  out  with  age  and  shattered  head, 
At  foot  he  struck  and  grounded  on  his  bed. 
There  careening  thus  he  lay, 
His  final  bilge  expecting  every  day, 
Heaven  took  his  ballast  from  his  dreary  hold, 
And  left  his  body  destitute  of  soul." 

Every  islander  knows  the  story  of  the  Nantucket  skipper  who  claimed 
that  he  could  always  tell  where  his  ship  was  by  the  color  and  taste  of 
the  lead  after  sounding.  Marden,  his  mate,  on  one  trip  determined  to 
fool  him,  and  for  this  purpose  brought  some  dirt  from  a  neighbor's 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  19 

garden  in  Nantucket.  He  woke  up  the  skipper  one  morning  off  Cape 
Horn,  and  showed  him  the  lead,  which  had  been  smeared  with  this  dirt, 
whereupon,  to  quote  the  words  of  James  Thomas  Fields, — 

"The  skipper  stormed  and  tore  his  hair, 

Hauled  on  his  boots  and  roared  to  Marden: 
'Nan tucket's  sunk,  and  here  we  are 

Right  over  old  Marm  Hackett's  garden!'"  . 

Another  Nantucket  captain  always  took  to  sea  medicine  bottles, 
each  numbered  and  indexed  to  suit  different  complaints.  Once  his 
mate  was  ill,  and,  looking  up  the  bottle  to  administer  in  his  case,  found 
that  No.  13  contained  the  cure  for  his  patient.  Unfortunately,  this 
bottle  had  all  been  used,  so,  after  careful  deliberation,  he  mixed  the 
contents  of  bottles  6  and  7,  which  he  gave  the  mate,  who  promptly 
died. 

Early  history  tells  us  that  Thomas  Macy  purchased  the  island  for 
thirty  pounds  and  two  beaver  hats,  "One  for  myself  and  one  for  my 
wife,"  and  to  him  therefore  belongs  the  honor  of  the  settlement  of  Nan- 
tucket; he  had  been  driven  away  from  Massachusetts  for  sheltering 
Quakers,  which  was  at  that  time  against  the  law,  and  with  his  friend 
Edward  Starbuck  fled  to  the  island  and  established  a  colony  composed 
of  such  well-known  families  as  the  Coffins,  Husseys,  Swaynes,  Gardners, 
Chases,  Folgers,  and  Starbucks.  These  men  were  not  whalers,  but  they 
watched  the  Indians  and  learned  much  from  them,  and  later  on  em- 
ployed Ichabod  Paddock  to  come  over  from  Cape  Cod  and  instruct 
them  further. 

The  character  of  the  island  and  its  situation  far  out  in  the  ocean,  its 
poor  soil,  and  the  number  of  whales  along  its  shores,  all  proved  an  in- 
ducement to  the  Nantucketers  to  follow  the  sea  as  a  calling.  At  first, 
there  were  so  many  whales  that  they  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  go 
beyond  the  coast;  so,  under  the  guidance  of  Paddock,  lookouts  were 
erected  along  the  South  shore,  and  each  man  patrolled  a  certain  amount 
of  territory.  Each  one  took  his  share  of  whales  killed,  and  business 
flourished,  f  This  method  of  whaling  continued  until  1712,  when  Chris- 
topher Hussey,  while  cruising  along  the  coast,  was  blown  out  to  sea. 
He  ran  across  a  sperm  whale,  which  he  finally  killed  and  brought  home. 
This  year  was  epoch  making,  as  this  was  the  first  sperm  whale  known 
to  have  been  taken  by  Americans.  The  oil  from  this  species  of  whale 
being  superior  to  that  of  all  others,  the  Nantucketers  now  (1715) 
decided  to  change  their  methods  and  to  whale  in  the  "deep."  As  the 
vessels  steadily  increased  in  size  with  greater  and  greater  cargo-carry- 
ing capacity,  voyages  necessarily  became  longer,  extending  even  to 
periods  of  four  or  five  years.  In  fact,  a  voyage  lasting  but  two  years 
was  considered  unusually  short.  The  point  of  view  of  most  whalers 
regarding  a  two-year  voyage  is  shown  by  the  captain  who,  when 
boarding  his  ship,  was  reminded  by  a  friend  that  he  had  not  said 
"Good-by"  to  his  wife,— 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


"Why  should  I?"  said  he;   "I  am  only  to  be  gone  two  years." 

About  1730  "try-  works"  were  built  on  the  vessels  instead  of  on  the 
shore,  and  the  oil  was  boiled  and  stowed  away  at  sea,  thus  allowing 
the  ships  to  make  much  longer  voyages.  At  this  time  Nantucket 
owned  as  many  whaleships  as  all  the  other  ports  of  America  combined. 
Whaling  continued  to  increase,  and  the  sterile  island  was  turned  into  a 
prosperous  community,  when  the  Revolution  came  on,  and  for  the  time 
'being  practically  put  an  end  to  the  industry.  Nantucket  was  the  only 
port  that  carried  on  whaling  during  the  war  :f  the  island  simply  had  to 
whale  or  starve,  as  the  inhabitants  knew  nomher  occupation.  Most 
of  their  vessels  were  eventually  captured  or  lost  by  shipwreck,  and  over 
twelve  hundred  of  their  men  were  either  killed  or  made  prisoners.  The 
end  of  the  war  found  the  island's  business  hopelessly  wrecked;  but, 
with  their  usual  pluck  and  determination,  the  Nantucketers  once  more 
built  up  a  profitable  fleet.  So  impoverished  were  they  that  the  govern- 
ment for  one  year  levied  no  taxes. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  a  Quaker,  called  William  Rotch,  was  Nan- 
tucket's  greatest  whaler,  and  even  he  became  so  discouraged  with  the 
prospects  at  home  that  in  1785  he  left  the  island  in  his  ship,  the  "Maria," 
for  London.  He  endeavored  to  make  some"  arrangement  with  the 
English  government  to  import  some  whaling  families  from  Nantucket, 
but,  failing  to  do  so,  repaired  to  France,  where  he  succeeded  in  making 
an  agreement  with  Louis  XVI.  A  great  many  families  moved  to 
France,  and  carried  on  the  pursuit  from  Dunkirk  in  Normandy.  Rotch 
soon  returned  to  Nantucket,  and  later  moved  to  New  Bedford,  where 
he  died.  The  old  Rotch  counting-house  was  later  used  as  a  club-room 
for  Nantucket  whaling  captains,  and  is  even  now  being  used  as  such. 
In  the  old  prosperous  days  this  was  jocosely  called  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, while  another  club,  which  was  used  by  the  ship  owners,  was 
named  the  House  of  Lords. 

Immediately  after  the  war,  the  ship  "Bedford,"  one  of  the  Rotch 
vessels,  was  loaded  with  oil,  and  sent  to  England  under  command  of 
Captain  Mooers.  This  was  the  first  vesseJ  to  display  the  American 
flag  in  a  British  port.  It  is  related  that  one  of  the  crew  of  the  ship 
was  hunchbacked,  and  when  on  shore  one  day  a  British  sailor  clapped 
his  hand  on  his  shoulder,  and  said,  "Hello,  Jack,  what  have  you  got 
here?"  "Bunker  Hill,  and  be  d  —  d  to  you,"  replied  the  Yankee. 

The  redoubtable  Nantucketers  resumed  their  whaling  at  the  close 
of  the  Revolution,  and  their  energy  and  skill  were  again  yielding  rich 
profits  when  the  War  of  1812  almost  annihilated  the  island's  fleet. 
But  as  it  was  another  case  of  whale  or  starve,  Nantucket  continued 
to  send  out  a  few  whalers,  and  was  the  only  American  port  during 
the  war  that  dared  to  brave  the  risks  of  British  capture. 

About  this  time,  in  one  of  the  Pacific  ports,  an  incident  occurred 
which  showed  in  an  amusing  light  the  ready  wit  and  intrepid  courage  of 
an  American  whaleman.  He  had  in  some  way  displeased  an  English 
naval  officer,  who,  feeling  himself  highly  insulted,  promptly  challenged 
the  Yankee,  who  accepted  and,  being  the  challenged  party,  had  the 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  23 

choice  of  weapons.  He  selected,  of  course,  the  weapon  with  which  he 
was  most  skilful  and  took  his  stand  with  a  poised  harpoon.  It  had 
altogether  too  dangerous  an  appearance  for  the  irate  Englishman, 
particularly  as  the  whaleman  was  evidently  an  expert  in  the  manual 
of  thrust  and  parry,  and  so  with  as  good  grace  as  he  could  command, 
the  Englishman  withdrew  from  the  fight. 

At  a  very  early  day  in  the  fishery,  whaling  vessels,  which  were  at 
first  long  rowboats  and  later  small  sloops,  began  to  increase  in  size, 
and  about  1820  ships  of  three  hundred  tons  were  found  profitable. 
The  increase  in  profit  producing  capacity,  strange  as  it  may  appear, 
actually  sounded  the  death-knell  of  the  Nantucket  whaling,  for  across 
the  mouth  of  the  harbour  ran  a  bar,  over  which  it  soon  became 
impossible  for  whaling  vessels  of  large  size  to  pass.  The  difficulty  was 
for  a  time  overcome  by  the  true  Yankee  ingenuity  of  some  inventive 
Nantucketer,  who  devised  the  "camel,"  a  veritable  dry-dock  barge 
in  which  the  larger  whaleships,  lightened  often  of  oil  and  bone,  were 
floated  over  the  bar  into  the  forest  of  masts  which  in  those  days 
characterized  a  harbour  now  frequented  only  by  a  few  schooners  and 
sloops,  the  small  pleasure  crafts  of  the  summer  residents,  and  an  oc- 
casional steamer. 

As  whaleships  still  continued  to  increase  in  size,  the  "camel"  ex- 
pedient was  only  a  temporary  success;  for  the  time  came  when  vessels 
were  of  too  great  tonnage  to  be  thus  floated  over  the  bar,  and  the  daring 
and  skilful  Nantucketer,  who  had  taught  the  civilized  world  not  only 
how,  but  where,  to  whale,  had  to  admit  defeat  and  gradually  give  up  the 
industry  to  more  fortunately  situated  ports.  At  this  time,  about  1830, 
Nantucket  was  commercially  the  third  largest  city  in  Massachusetts, 
Boston  being  first  and  Salem  second. 

In  1843  Nantucket  owned  its  record  number  of  ships,  eighty-eight. 
In  1846,  which  is  referred  to  as  the  "boom"  year  in  American  whaling, 
sixteen  vessels  cleared  from  Nantucket  and  sixty-nine  from  her  near-by 
rival — New  Bedford.  In  1869  Nantucket  sent  her  last  ship  and 
disappeared  from  the  list  of  whaling  ports.  The  great  fire  of  1846 
also  contributed  to  the  downfall  of  the  industry. 

A  new  era  in  whaling  was  to  be  born,  with  New  Bedford  as  the  centre, 
and  Nantucket  was  to  become  only  a  health  resort  and  mecca  for 
sight-seers,  more  than  ten  thousand  persons  visiting  the  island  in  1914. 

NEW  BEDFORD 

New  Bedford  undoubtedly  owed  its  whaling  success  to  its  prox- 
imity to  Nantucket,  to  its  wonderful  harbour,  and  to  the  honesty, 
thrift,  and  good  business  ability  of  its  citizens,  most  of  whom  were 
Quakers. 

As  in  Nantucket,  the  whole  city  lived  to  go  whaling,  and  as  each 
inhabitant  made  more  money,  he  moved  his  residence  higher  up  on  the 
Hill.  It  is  said  that  there  was  an  inn  called  the  "Crossed  Harpoons," 
and  another  called  "Spouter  Inn,"  and  there  is  a  Whaleman's  Chapel 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  25 

on  Johnny  Cake  Hill  where  regular  Sunday  services  were  held,  at  which 
the  following  hymn  was  always  sung  by  the  congregation : — 

"The  ribs  and  terrors  of  the  whale 

Arched  over  me  in  dismal  gloom, 
While  all  God's  sun-lit  waves  rolled  by 
And  left  me  deepening  down  to  doom. 

"I  saw  the  opening  maw  of  hell, 

With  endless  pains  and  sorrows  there; 
Which  none  but  they  that  feel  can  tell — 
Oh,  I  was  plunging  to  despair — 

"In  black  distress  I  called  to  God, 

When  I  could  scarce  believe  him  mine, 
He  bowed  his  ear  to  my  complaints — 
No  more  the  whale  did  me  confine." 

The  pulpit  of  this  chapel  was  made  to  represent  the  prow  of  a  whale- 
ship,  and  was  ascended  by  means  of  a  rope  ladder,  which  the  minister, 
who  had  been  a  harpooner  in  his  youth,  hauled  up  after  him.  Around 
the  walls  of  this  little  church  can  still  be  seen  tablets  erected  in  memory 
of  many  whalemen  who  lost  their  lives  at  sea.  There  also  was  a  daily 
paper  called  The  Whaleman,  which  gave  the  reports  of  the  whaleships 
and  the  whaling  news.  It  has  been  said  that  New  Bedford  fathers 
gave  whales  for  dowers  to  their  daughters,  and  that  they  had  reservoirs 
of  oil  in  their  attics  to  burn  on  gala  occasions. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  three  Morgans  not  long  ago  married  three 
Rotchs,  three  Rotchs  married  three  Rodmans,  and  three  Rodmans 
married  three  Motleys.  Among  other  well-known  New  Bedford  whaling 
families  are  the  Hathaways,  Swifts,  Rowlands,  Morgans,  Stones, 
Delanos,  Rodmans,  Seaburys,  Giffords,  Tabers,  Grinnells,  and  Wings. 

Whaling  was  a  tremendous  financial  gamble,  and  until  a  vessel  came 
home  "clean"  or  "greasy,"  meaning  empty  or  full,  the  success  of  the 
voyage  was  not  known.  They  tell  a  story  of  a  New  Bedford  captain 
who  had  been  out  for  nearly  four  years,  and  as  he  came  up  to  the  wharf 
the  owners  asked  him  what  luck  he  had  had.  His  reply  was,  "I  didn't 
get  any  whales,  but  I  had  a  damn  good  sail."  There  is  another  tale 
of  a  seaman  whose  vessel  left  New  Bedford  on  the  day  of  his  mother's 
funeral.  Naturally  he  set  sail  with  a  heavy  heart,  and  during  his  three 
years'  cruise  he  thought  many  times  of  his  sorrowful  father  at  home. 
As  the  ship  neared  the  docks  he  was  met  by  his  father  with  "  Hurry  up, 
Jim,  I  want  to  introduce  you  to  your  new  mother."  There  were  many 
changes  at  home  during  a  long  cruise,  and  sometimes  even  the  fashions 
had  entirely  changed.  One  whaleship  captain  described  his  surprise 
at  seeing  for  the  first  time  the  crinoline  or  hoop  skirt. 

The  real  founder  of  New  Bedford,  and  the  pioneer  of  the  whale 
fishery  at  this  port,  was  Joseph  Russell,  who  sent  his  ships  out  in  1765. 
Several  years  later  the  first  ship  was  launched  and  was  called  the  "Dart- 
mouth," and  this  vessel  is  well  known  to  history  owing  to  the  fact  that 
she  was  one  of  the  ships  that  carried  into  Boston  Harbour  the  tea 


26  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

that  was  thrown  overboard.  The  whaling  industry  increased  steadily, 
except  during  the  wars,  until  1857,  when  the  New  Bedford  fleet  num- 
bered three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  vessels,  was  valued  at  over  twelve 
million  dollars,  and  employed  over  twelve  thousand  seamen.  If  these 
vessels  had  been  strung  out  in  line,  they  would  have  stretched  over  ten 
miles.  In  addition  to  these  sailors,  thousands  of  others  were  employed 
at  home  making  casks,  irons,  ropes,  and  many  other  articles  used  in 
whaling.  In  fact,  it  was  often  stated  that  the  population  was  divided 
into  three  parts, — those  away  on  a  voyage,  those  returning,  and  those 
getting  ready  for  the  next  trip. 

There  were  many  nationalities  represented  in  the  crews  of  the  whalers, 
and  the  New  Bedford  streets  presented  a  very  foreign  appearance, 
with  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  Norwegians,  Germans,  French, 
English,  Scotch,  Irish,  Sandwich  Islanders,  and  New  Englanders  at 
every  turn.  A  large  number  of  Portuguese  served  on  whaleships, 
and  a  part  of  the  city  near  the  south  end  of  Water  Street  became  known 
as  Fayal. 

The  "Golden  Age,"  as  it  is  called,  of  whaling  was  between  1825 
and  1860,  and  during  the  whole  of  this  period  New  Bedford  assumed 
the  lead,  even  long  after  other  ports  had  given  up  the  pursuit.  It  is 
estimated  that  about  the  year  1848  there  were  over  seventy  millions 
invested  in  the  industry  and  seventy  thousand  persons  derived  from  it 
their  subsistence. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  insurance  on  American  whalemen 
was  about  one-half  the  rate  that  was  charged  the  Englishman,  which 
certainly  showed  the  superiority  of  our  Yankee  seamen.  There  were 
several  whaling  insurance  companies  in  New  Bedford.  There  is  a 
story  told  of  a  New  Bedford  ship  owner  who  had  just  heard  that  his 
vessel  had  gone  down  and  he  hadn't  yet  received  the  insurance  policy 
from  the  company.  He  sent  a  letter  down  to  the  office  which  read 
as  follows:  "I  have  heard  from  my  ship  and  thee  need  not  place  the 
insurance."  Of  course,  the  policy  was  sent  up  immediately. 

The  New  Bedford  whalers  explored  new  grounds,  and  to  this  fact 
chiefly  is  due  the  continued  prosperity  of  its  whale  fishery,  but  it  was 
to  die  slowly;  in  1875  the  fleet  from  this  port  had  declined  to  116 
vessels,  in  1886  to  77  ships,  and  in  1906  to  24. 

One  of  the  chief  historical  events  of  New  Bedford  happened  in  1861, 
when  the  famous  Stone  Fleet  sailed  from  that  port.  The  United  States 
government  decided  to  purchase  some  old  ships  and  sink  them  in  the 
channels  of  the  harbours  of  Charleston  and  Savannah,  to  prevent  block- 
ade running  during  the  war.  H.  Bartlett  &  Sons  supervised  their 
purchase  and  Captain  Rodolphus  N.  Swift  was  the  general  agent. 
Bartlett  purchased  some  of  the  old  whalers  for  as  small  a  price  as  thirty- 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  some  of  them  having  more  cement  than 
wood  in  their  hulls.  To  James  Duddy,  a  teamster,  fell  the  task  of 
supplying  the  seventy-five  hundred  tons  of  stones  with  which  to  fill 
the  vessels,  and  many  a  New  Bedford  stone  wall  now  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  some  of  our  Southern  harbours.  Captain  Rodney  French,  an  old 


The  famous  Stone  Fleet  sailing  from  New  Bedford,  Nov.  16,  1861.  The  ships 
were  loaded  with  stones  and  were  sunk  in  the  mouths  of  certain  Southern  harbours 
during  the  Civil  War,  to  prevent  blockade  runners  from  entering.  The  vessels  in 
this  picture  are  the  Garland,  Maria  Theresa,  Rebecca  Simms,  Leonidas,  South 
America,  Archer,  American,  Harvest,  Amazon,  Cossack,  Courier,  Henrietta, 
Potomac,  Kensington,  Herald  and  L.  C.  Richmond. 


The  captains  of  the  Stone  Fleet.  A  fine  type  of  old  New  England  ship  masters. 
Standing  from  left  to  right  — Captains  Beard,  Gifford,  Swift,  Childs,  Stall,  French, 
Wood,  Cumiski,  Willis,  Bailey.  Sitting  from  left  to  right— Captains  Malloy, 
Swift,  Brown,  Rowland,  Worth,  Tilton,  Bray  ton,  Taylor,  Chadwick. 


28  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

"slaver,"  who  afterwards  became  Mayor  of  New  Bedford,  was  selected 
as  commander  of  the  fleet,  and  on  Thanksgiving  Day  most  of  New 
Bedford  assembled  on  the  wharves  and  saw  fifteen  of  her  once  famous 
fleet,  which  had  for  years  been  the  homes  of  its  seamen,  sail  forth  never 
to  return.  It  must  have  been  a  very  sad  day  for  the  city,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  this  event  marked  the  beginning  of  the  decline  of  the 
industry  at  New  Bedford. 

One  captain  insisted  upon  washing  the  decks  of  his  ship  every  morn- 
ing, using  pulverized  stones  instead  of  sand,  and  another,  to  give  the 
fleet  a  warlike  appearance,  mounted  a  formidable  "Quaker"  gun,  made 
from  a  section  of  a  spar. 

A  second  fleet  sailed  later  in  the  year,  making  forty-five  vessels  in 
all.  Although  the  expedition  cost  the  government  about  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars,  its  success  was  only  temporary.  The  captain  of 
the  "Alabama"  swore  vengeance  on  New  Bedford  and  destroyed  or 
captured  every  whaler  he  could  find,  and  in  the  "Alabama"  awards 
that  were  made  after  the  war  New  Bedford  received  a  large  share. 

Ten  years  later  occurred  the  worst  disaster  that  ever  befell  a  whaling 
fleet.  Thirty-four  whalers  were  caught  in  the  ice  in  the  Arctic  regions 
and  sunk,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact  that,  while  the  loss  reached  one  mil- 
lion five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  not  a  single  human  life  was  sacrificed. 
These  three  pictures  of  a  series  of  five  on  the  following  page  show  the  sink- 
ing of  the  ships,  the  abandonment  of  their  vessels,  which  had  their  flags 
union  down,  and  the  eighty-mile  sail  through  the  ice-floes  to  the  open 
sea,  where  twelve  hundred  and  nineteen  men,  women,  and  children 
were  taken  home  in  the  seven  whalers  that  had  not  been  lost  in  the 
ice.  It  must  have  been  very  crowded,  as  each  ship  had  to  stow  away 
several  hundred  persons  in  addition  to  her  own  crew.  There  were 
many  sad  hearts  as  they  left  their  vessels  and  almost  all  of  their  belong- 
ings, and  started  off  in  the  small  boats.  The  trip  to  sea  and  the  trans- 
shipment in  the  heavy  swell  must  have  been  made  with  the  utmost 
care,  otherwise  many  lives  would  have  been  sacrificed.  The  loss  to  the 
New  Bedford  owners  was  so  tremendous  that  they  never  really  recov- 
ered from  the  catastrophe,  and  many  families  had  to  economize  for 
years  after.  The  Swifts,  Rowlands,  and  Rotchs  were  among  those  who 
lost  ships. 

On  one  of  the  vessels  in  the  first  picture  of  this  series  was  a  large 
quantity  of  the  finest  Manila  cigars  and  also  some  rare  Madeira  wine, 
that  had  been  picked  up  in  the  Philippines  the  year  before  on  instruc- 
tions from  the  ship's  owner.  When  the  captain  of  this  vessel  reached 
New  Bedford  and  reported  the  loss  of  his  command,  the  owner's  first 
question,  after  listening  to  the  dismal  tale,  was  whether  his  cigars  and 
wine  had  been  saved.  "All  of  it,"  came  the  reply.  "Where  is  it?" 
said  the  owner,  looking  more  cheerful.  "Well,  you  see,  I  drank  the 
wine  and  Mr.  Jones,  the  mate,  he  smoked  the  cigars,  and  they  cer- 
tainly done  us  both  good,"  replied  the  captain. 

The  ship  "Progress,"  shown  in  the  last  picture,  forms  an  interesting 
connecting  link  between  the  Stone  Fleet  and  this  1871  disaster. 


Abandonment  of  the  whalers  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  September,  1871.     Vessels 
surrounded  by  the  ice,  and  many  of  them  in  a  sinking  condition. 


Abandonment  of  the  whalers  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  September,  1871.  Showing 
the  whaleboats  being  hauled  up  on  Blossom  Shoals,  where  the  ship-wrecked  crews 
spent  the  night  crowded  under  the  upturned  boats. 


Abandonment  of  the  whalers  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  September,  1871.  The  seven 
ships  receiving  the  1217  men,  women,  and  children  of  the  abandoned  vessels.  The 
sea  was  very  rough  and  the  trans-shipment  was  very  dangerous.  The  ship 
"Progress,"  whose  history  is  given  on  the  opposite  page,  is  at  the  right  of  the 
picture. 


30  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Under  the  name  of  the  "Charles  Phelps"  she  whaled  from  Stonington, 
Conn.,  for  a  number  of  years  and  finally  was  purchased  for  the  Stone 
Fleet.  She  was  found  to  be  in  such  good  condition  that  the  govern- 
ment decided  not  to  sink  her,  and  she  returned  to  New  Bedford  and  was 
sold;  and  it  was  this  same  vessel  that  took  part  in  the  rescue  of  the 
twelve  hundred  and  nineteen  shipwrecked  people  ten  years  later.  In 
1893  she  was  fitted  out  as  if  for  a  whaling  voyage  and  towed  by  way  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  River  to  Chicago,  where  she  was  exhibited  at  the 
Fair,  and  now  lies  rotting  on  the  sands  of  the  lake  at  South  Chicago. 
No  other  whaler  ever  had  so  interesting  and  varied  a  history. 

The  year  after  this  Arctic  disaster  found  the  fleet  again  in  the  Arctic, 
and  the  "Minerva,"  one  of  the  ships  left  at  Point  Belcher,  was  dis- 
covered and  found  to  be  in  good  condition;  the  others  had  sunk.  One 
lone  person  was  found  who  had  remained  on  board  his  ship  for  the 
whole  year,  and  his  sufferings  had  been  fearful.  The  natives  had 
stolen  all  the  whalebone  and  oil  from  the  sinking  vessels,  and  when 
some  of  the  same  shipwrecked  captains  arrived  the  next  year  the 
Esquimaux  tried  to  sell  them  back  their  own  property,  and  one  native 
was  using  one  of  the  chronometer  cases  as  a  dinner  pot  in  which  to  boil 
his  blubber.  The  "Minerva"  was  manned  and  sailed  to  New  Bedford 
and  continued  in  the  whaling  industry. 

New  Bedford  ships  suffered  severely  during  the  Rebellion,  but  later 
new  ones  were  added  to  the  fleet  and  business  again  prospered.  Lack 
of  space  prevents  enumerating  the  achievements  of  American  whalers 
during  the  Civil  War.  Captain  William  P.  Randall,  however,  will  go 
down  in  history  as  a  hero  of  this  war;  he  was  brought  up  on  a  whale- 
ship  and  later  served  in  the  navy. 

Captain  Frederick  Fish,  father  of  Frederick  P.  Fish  and  Charles  H. 
Fish,  of  Boston,  was  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  respected  of  the 
whaling  captains  sailing  out  of  New  Bedford.  He  commanded  the 
"Montreal"  and  the  "Columbus"  when  only  twenty-two  years  old, 
made  nine  voyages  round  the  world,  and  was  one  of  the  most  successful 
whalers  of  his  day.  Once  when  near  the  Sandwich  Islands  his  vessel 
happened  to  anchor  very  close  to  an  English  ship,  and  Captain  Fish 
noticed  that  every  evening  at  sunset  the  English  commander,  while  at 
anchor,  set  all  sails  and  then  furled  them  again  in  order  to  show  how 
quickly  this  work  could  be  performed.  After  a  few  evenings  Captain 
Fish  ordered  his  crew  to  do  the  same,  and  the  time  consumed  was  so 
much  less  that  the  next  evening  the  Englishman  decided  he  did  not 
care  to  go  through  the  performance;  in  fact,  he  never  tried  to  show  off 
again  in  that  port. 

There  is  also  another  amusing  story  told  about  Captain  Fish.  His 
ship  at  one  port  took  on  a  great  many  chickens,  which  were  used  for 
food,  and  finally  one  of  the  crew  rebelled  and  informed  the  captain  that 
he  had  eaten  enough  hen.  He  was  immediately  ordered  out  on  a  yard- 
arm  and  was  made  to  crow  like  a  rooster  for  such  a  long  time  that  when 
he  was  again  allowed  on  deck,  he  had  a  most  excellent  appetite  for  an- 
other chicken  dinner.  Captain  Fish  delighted  in  telling  of  the  time 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


31 


when  he  took  a  local  pilot  on  board  somewhere  in  the  Pacific  to  con- 
duct his  vessel  into  port.  He  asked  the  navigator  if  he  were  sure  of 
his  course,  and  received  a  prompt  and  decisive  answer  in  the  affirma- 
tive. Presently,  to  the  disgust  of  the  captain,  the  vessel  touched.  The 
next  question  put  to  the  pilot  was  whether  or  not  he  could  swim,  and 
finding  that  he  could,  Captain  Fish  ordered  his  crew  to  throw  him  over- 
board. This  was  done,  and,  the  distance  being  short,  the  swimmer  made 
the  land,  and  the  captain  himself  took  his  vessel  in  the  rest  of  the  way. 

Captain  Fish  was  an  excellent  story  teller,  and  another  yarn  has  been 
handed  down  in  connection  with  one  of  his  trips.     The  voyage  had  been 


New  Bedford  fifty  years  ago  (1808).     (This  print  is  dated  1858.) 

very  unsuccessful,  and  as  he  was  looking  over  his  chart  he  tossed  his 
dividers  down  in  a  disgruntled  manner,  and  by  accident  they  chanced 
to  stick  in  the  chart.  He  then  conceived  the  novel  idea  of  sailing  to 
the  very  place  where  his  instrument  happened  to  land,  and  curiously 
enough  he  was  rewarded  by  a  very  large  catch. 

Once  when  one  of  his  whaleboats  had  been  overturned  by  a  fighting 
whale  he  hurried  to  the  assistance  of  the  crew,  who  were  struggling  in 
the  water,  and  to  his  amazement  found  two  of  them  squabbling  over  the 
ownership  of  a  pair  of  old  shoes,  instead  of  thinking  about  saving  their 
lives.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  he  never  learned  to  swim,  and  often 
saved  his  life  when  capsized  by  grabbing  some  floating  debris.  His 
nerve  and  courage  were  remarkable,  and  it  is  related  that  even  on  his 
death-bed  he  told  the  doctor  an  amusing  story. 

This  picture  of  New  Bedford  in  1808  is  most  interesting.  The  oil 
market  shed  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  street  was  built  in  1795  by 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


Barnabas  Russell  for  his  son  Joseph,  and  the  last  building  shown  on 
the  right  of  the  picture  was  the  mansion  of  William  Rotch,  Sr.,  and  the 
first  estate  in  the  village  at  that  time.  This  Rotch  was  the  son  of 
Joseph  Rotch,  one  of  New  Bedford's  earliest  whalers,  and  he  himself  is 
represented  in  his  old  chaise,  the  only  private  carriage  their  in  the  town. 
He  is  negotiating  for  a  load  of  hay,  and  from  all  accounts  he  must 


Oil  stored  on  the  wharves  at  New  Bedford  awaiting  a  favorable  market.  The 
owners,  dressed  in  silk  hats,  long-tailed  coats,  and  polished  top  boots,  might  often 
be  seen  watching,  testing,  and  marking  the  oil-barrels. 


have  been  a  keen  business  man,  for  he  was  often  seen  going  to  market 
so  early  that  he  had  to  use  a  lantern.  -  All  the  other  figures  in  this 
picture  also  are  intended  to  represent  well-known  citizens  of  the  time. 
The  two  men  shaking  hands  are  Captain  Crocker  and  Samuel  Rodman; 
the  latter,  who  was  the  son-in-law  of  William  Rotch,  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  best  dressed  man  in  New  Bedford  in  his  day.  One 
of  the  boys  harnessed  to  the  small  cart  is  the  Hon.  George  Rowland, 
Jr.,  great-uncle  of  Llewellyn  Howland.  H.  H.  Hathaway,  Jr.,  and 
Thomas  S.  Hathaway  have  three  ancestors  in  the  picture. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


OTHER  NEW  ENGLAND  WHALING  PORTS 

Rhode  Island  pursued  whales  in  1731,  Newport  and  Providence  being 
the  two  most  successful  ports.  Fifty  ships  were  owned  by  Connecti- 
cut and  Rhoole  Island  in  1775.  Massachusetts  owned  over  three  hun- 
dred at  this  time.  Rhode  Island^was  more  of  a  "slave"  than  a  whaling 
State.  New  London  became  a  great  whaling  port  in  1846,  and  was  the 
third  in  importance  in  New  England. 

The  people  of  Cape  Cod  began  sending  ships  to  sea  about  1726,  and 
a  few  years  later  a  dozen  or  so  vessels  were  fitted  out  at  Provincetown. 
Boston  claimed  twenty  whaleships  in  1775,  and  registered  from  one  to 
eleven  vessels  almost  every  year  until  1903,  since  which  date  no  whale- 
ship  has  been  recorded  from  this  port.  Gloucester  turned  to  whaling 
in  1833. 

The  following  figures  show  the  different  whaling  ports  in  Massachu- 
setts and  the  largest  number  of  vessels  enrolled  in  any  one  year  in  each. 
New  Bedford,  of  course,  held  first  place  with  329  in  1857,  with  Nan- 
tucket  88  in  1843^JioyincelQwn  claimed  54  in  _1869;. J?airhaven  50 
in  1848  to  1852C.Edgfrrtown  and  MattapoTseiFowned  19  each^  Salem 
had  14  in  1840;  ^Boston  11  in  1868;  Dartmouth,  10;  Plymouth,  9; 
Falmouth,  8;  Wareham,  Fall  River,  and  Marion,  7  each;  Beverly, 
Holmes'  Hole,  Orleans,  5  each;  Lynn,  4;  Newburyport,  3;  Gloucester, 
Dorchester,  and  Sandwich,  2  each;  and  the  following  claimed  1: 
Braintree,  Hingham,  Marblehead,  Barnstable,  Duxbury,  Quincy, 
Truro,  Yarmouth,  and  Wellfleet.  Of  the  Rhode  Island  towns  Warren 
owned  25;  Newport,  12;  Bristol,  10;  Providence,  9.  Connecticut 
towns  that  owned  whalers  were  New  London,  70;  Stonington,  27; 
Mystic,  18 ;  and  a  few  scattered  among  half  a  dozen  other  places.  Ports- 
mouth, N.H.,  at  one  time  owned  two  vessels,  and  between  the  years 
1835  to  1845  Bath,  Bucksport,  Portland,  and  Wiscasset  in  Maine  each 
had  one.  Massachusetts,  however,  could  claim  five-sixths  of  the  total 
fleet. 

A  few  words  must  be  said  in  praise  of  Samuel  Mulford  of  Long 
Island.  Governor  Hunter  of  New  York  claimed  for  his  State  a  share 
of  all  whales  caught,  whereupon  Mulford  waged  war  against  this  act 
in  every  possible  way.  Finally  he  sailed  to  London  and  put  his  case 
before  the  Crown.  The  people  in  London  were  much  amused  at  his 
country  clothes,  and  the  pickpockets  in  particular  became  a  nuisance 
to  him  in  the  streets.  Mulford,  however,  showed  his  resourcefulness 
by  sewing  fish  hooks  in  his  pockets  and  succeeded  in  capturing  the 
thief.  Another  incident  shows  the  ingenuity  of  the  whaleman.  The 
ship  "Syren"  was  attacked  by  a  horde  of  murderous  savages,  and  the 
crew  of  the  ship  would,  doubtless,  have  been  murdered  had  it  not  been 
for  a  quick  stratagem  of  the  mate.  He  remembered  a  package  of  tacks 
in  the  cabin  and  yelled,  "Break  out  the  carpet  tacks  and  sow  'em  over 
the  deck."  The  natives,  yelling  with  pain,  jumped  headlong  into  the 
sea,  and  the  ship  was  saved. 

The  world  owes  many  discoveries  to  the  energy  and  determination 


y 


•? 


M^-^ 


The  Japanese  method  of  capturing  whales  was  to  entangle  them  in  nets. 
A  great  many  boatloads  of  men  would  drive  the  whale  toward  the  nets 
by  throwing  bricks  and  stones  at  it.  When  once  entangled  the  infu- 
riated animal  could  be  easily  killed.  In  1884  the  Ukitsu  Whaling  Com- 
pany employed  over  100,000  whalemen.  One  of  the  most  successful  of 
the  Japanese  in  this  pursuit  was  Masutomi  Matazaemon,  who  accumu- 
lated a  large  fortune.  The  Japanese  have  been  very  slow  to  adopt  our 
Western  methods. 


I 


A  typical  "blubber  hunter"  cruising  for  "right"  whales  in  the  Arctic. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  35 

of  whaleship  captains.  Over  four  hundred  islands  in  the  Pacific  were 
discovered  and  named  by  American  whalemen,  and  the  history  of  New 
Zealand  is  closely  connected  with  the  visits  of  New  England  whalers. 
Australia,  too,  was  opened  to  the  world  by  the  whalemen. 

It  was  to  a  certain  extent  due  to  the  testimony  of  Captain  Bryant, 
a  whale  captain  of  Mattapoisett,  that  Alaska  was  purchased  by  the 
United  States  government.  That  there  was  a  northwest  passage  was 
also  discovered  by  American  whalemen  in  this  way :  the  date  and  name 
of  a  ship  were  always  marked  on  its  harpoons,  and  in  several  instances 
whales  were  captured  in  the  Pacific  by  ships  that  were  known  to  have 
been  cruising  not  long  before  in  the  Atlantic.  It  was  Captain  Timothy 
Folger,  of  Nantucket,  who  charted  the  Gulf  Stream  at  the  request  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  to  whom  he  was  related,  and  this  drawing  was 
engraved  on  an  old  chart  and  preserved  in  London.  In  this  way  Eng- 
lish mariners  discovered  how  to  avoid  the  swift  current  and  thereby 
gain  much  time.  Our  seamen  in  the  early  days  were  not  very  kindly 
treated  by  the  Japanese,  but,  finally,  several  whalemen  secured  their 
good  will  by  teaching  them  English.  This  encouraged  the  American 
government  to  send  out  Commodore  Perry's  expedition,  which  suc- 
ceeded in  making  our  first  treaty  with  Japan,  thus  opening  that  country 
to  Western  civilization. 

It  was  difficult  to  make  discoveries  ahead  of  our  whalemen.  In  1834 
two  Russian  discovery  ships  approached  a  forlorn  little  island  in  the 
Antarctic  Ocean  and  the  commander  was  about  to  take  possession  in 
the  name  of  his  Czar.  There  was  a  dense  fog  at  the  time,  but  when 
it  cleared  away  they  were  very  much  surprised  and  vexed  to  see  a  little 
Connecticut  ship  at  anchor  between  their  two  vessels.  The  name  of 
this  whaler  was  the  "Hero"  of  Stonington,  captained  by  Nathaniel  B. 
Palmer,  who  was  only  twenty -one  years  of  age  and  was  just  return- 
ing from  his  discovery  of  the  Antarctic  Continent.  The  Russian  com- 
mander was  so  impressed  by  the  achievement  of  this  youthful  captain 
that  he  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  naming  the  place  Palmer's  Land. 
This  name  has  since  been  changed  to  Graham  Land.  It  is  an  undis- 
puted fact  that  the  whalers  prepared  the  way  for  the  missionaries. 

ABOARD   A   "BLUBBER  HUNTER" 

Nothing  can  be  more  romantic  than  to  be  attending  a  clam-bake  on 
Mishaum  Point  or  Barney's  Joy  and  to  see  a  whaleship,  or  "blubber 
hunter"  as  she  is  often  termed,  round  the  point  and  start  to  sea.  It 
is  with  quite  different  feelings  that  one  peers  down  into  her  forecastle, 
which  is  often  referred  to  as  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  This  room, 
which  is  the  home  of  thirty  to  forty  men  for  three  or  four  years,  is 
reached  by  a  perpendicular  ladder  through  a  small  hatchway,  which 
is  the  only  means  of  ventilation.  The  bunks  are  in  tiers  and  are  about 
the  size  of  a  coffin,  so  narrow  that  it  has  often  been  said  that  one  has 
to  get  out  of  them  in  order  to  turn  over.  A  small  table  in  the  centre 
of  this  "hole"  and  the  seamen's  chests  lashed  to  the  floor  comprise 


36  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

all  the  furnishings,  except  possibly  a  few  bottles  of  rum,  which  were 
often  labelled  "camphor."  In  fact,  one  might  speak  of  the  dis-accom- 
inodations  of  the  forecastle,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  a  cruise  in  a  whaler 
is  often  spoken  of  as  a  "sailor's  horror."  The  odor  of  grease,  dirt,  oil, 
and  lack  of  air  are  unbearable  except  to  one  thoroughly  accustomed  to 
a  whaling  trip,  and  sailors  often  say  that  this  attractive  place  should 
not  be  approached  without  a  clothespin  on  one's  nose.  The  utensils 
comprised  a  few  tin  plates  and  a  bucket  of  water,  with  one  cup  for  the 
use  of  every  one.  The  food  consisted  of  "longlick"  and  "scouse,"  the 
former  made  of  tea,  coffee,  and  molasses,  and  the  latter  of  hardtack, 
beans,  and  meat.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see,  therefore,  why  most  of  the 
captains  anchored  their  ships  well  out  beyond  the  harbour,  so  as  to 
prevent  desertions  after  the  novice  seaman  had  glanced  at  his  sleeping 
quarters.  There  have  been  cases  of  sailors  jumping  overboard  on  the 
chance  of  reaching  land,  and  it  is  on  record  that  the  greater  part  of  a 
whaleship's  crew  once  floated  to  shore  on  the  cover  of  the  try-works. 
A  captain  was  very  careful  where  he  allowed  his  men  to  land,  and,  in 
case  he  was  afraid  of  desertions,  took  care  to  allow  them  shore  leave 
only  at  places  where  the  natives  were  troublesome,  or  where  for  a  ten- 
dollar  bill  he  knew  he  could  get  the  whole  crew  returned  to  him. 

The  whaleship  looked  very  clumsy  and  was  built  for  strength  rather 
than  for  speed,  the  bow  and  stern  looking  as  if  they  were  made  by  the 
mile  and  chopped  off  in  lengths  to  suit.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the 
"Rousseau,"  belonging  to  the  Rowlands,  when  caught  in  a  storm  off 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  sailed  astern  for  seven  days  faster  than  she  had 
ever  sailed  ahead,  and  successfully  weathered  the  point. 

There  is  an  amusing  anecdote  that  has  gone  the  whaling  rounds, 
of  a  greenhorn,  called  Hezekiah  Ellsprett,  who  arrived  on  board  the 
night  before  sailing.  One  of  the  men  told  him  that  the  first  ones  on 
board  had  the  right  to  pick  out  their  berths  and  suggested  that  he 
paint  his  name  on  the  berth  he  should  select.  Hezekiah  looked  round, 
found  the  best-looking  cabin,  painted  his  name  in  big  letters  on  the 
outside  of  the  door,  and  made  himself  comfortable  for  the  night.  He 
had  chosen  the  captain's  room,  and  in  the  morning  the  captain  came 
on  board,  and  in  very  violent  terms  informed  him  that  he  was  in  the 
wrong  end  of  the  ship. 

The  whaleman's  life  was  indeed  a  hard  one,  and  his  share  of  the 
profit,  or  "lay"  as  it  was  called,  was  so  small  that  at  the  end  of  a 
moderately  successful  voyage  if  his  share  amounted  to  several  hundred 
dollars  he  was  doing  well.  His  earnings  were  depleted  by  the  captain's 
"slop  chest,"  where  the  sailors  had  to  purchase  their  tobacco  and  clothes 
at  high  prices,  and  if  there  were  any  kicks  the  answer  was  that  he  could 
"get  skinned  or  go  naked."  The  most  necessary  part  of  the  sailor's 
equipment  was  the  sheath  knife  which  was  used  about  the  ship  and 
to  repair  his  clothes,  and  it  was  this  same  implement  that  he  used  to 
cut  his  food! 

Regular  deck  watches  were  kept,  and  in  good  weather  the  officers 
often  winked  their  eyes  if  some  of  the  men  slept.  Among  sailors 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  37 

this  was  called  a  "caulk,"  and  often  some  kind  of  a  joke  was  played 
on  the  sleeper.  In  one  case  they  tied  a  live  pig  to  the  slumberer's  feet 
and  watched  the  fun  from  behind  the  try -works. 

Whalers  would  rarely  cruise  past  the  Azores  without  stopping  at 
Fayal,  where  they  were  most  hospitably  received  by  the  American 
Consul,  who  for  centuries  was  one  of  the  Dabney  family.  In  fact, 
the  island  is  often  referred  to  among  whalemen  as  the  "Isle  de  Dabney." 

"Gamming"  or  exchanging  visits  between  two  whalers  at  sea  was 
thoroughly  enjoyed  and  gave  a  chance  to  the  sailors  to  swap  experiences, 
and  many  a  weird,  sorrowful,  or  wonderful  story  must  have  been  related. 
An  incident  is  recorded  of  a  meeting  between  two  brothers  who  had 
lived  in  Nantucket,  and  who  had  not  met  for  twenty-three  years. 
There  is  an  old  adage  among  whalers  that  when  a  year  from  home,  on 
"gamming"  with  a  ship  that  has  sailed  subsequent  to  your  own  de- 
parture, you  have  the  privilege  of  begging;  when  two  years  out,  of 
stealing;  and  when  three  years  away  from  home,  of  both  stealing  and 
begging. 

A  New  London  ship  was  once  holding  a  reception  on  board  for  some 
natives,  and  each  of  the  crew  was  endeavoring  in  some  way  to  amuse 
the  guests.  One  seaman  took  out  his  set  of  false  teeth,  thinking  he 
would  provide  entertainment;  but  instead  the  natives  became  so  alarmed 
that  they  tumbled  over  the  side  into  their  canoes  and  made  their  retreat 
as  quickly  as  possible.  The  crew  was  asked  on  shore  for  a  return  visit; 
but  an  invitation  to  the  exhibitor  of  the  teeth  was  not  forthcoming, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  remain  alone  on  the  ship,  much  to  his  disappoint- 
ment. Captain  Gardner  of  Nantucket  stated  that  in  thirty-seven 
years  he  spent  only  four  years  and  eight  months  at  home,  and  Cap- 
tain North,  also  of  Nantucket,  figured  that  he  had  sailed  one  million 
one  hundred  and  ninety-one  thousand  miles. 

Nothing  could  have  equalled  the  joy  of  returning  home  after  a  long 
voyage,  and  the  anxiety  to  reach  port  was  almost  unbearable.  Often 
a  vessel  ran  into  bad  winds  and  had  to  anchor  for  days  a  few  miles 
off  shore,  and  there  is  one  case  known  of  a  ship  being  blown  to  sea  and 
lost  after  having  actually  come  within  sight  of  New  Bedford  Harbour. 

Many  a  whaleman  has  laughed  at  this  story.  It  was  customary  for 
the  first  mate  to  keep  the  log  book.  One  day  he  was  intoxicated,  so 
the  captain  entered  the  day's  events,  noting  that  "the  mate  was  drunk 
all  day."  The  next  day  the  mate  protested,  but  the  captain  said  that 
it  was  true  and  must  remain  on  the  records.  The  mate  resumed  his 
charge  of  the  diary,  and  got  more  than  even  with  his  superior  officer 
by  recording  on  the  following  day  that  "the  Captain  was  sober  all  day." 

WHALING  IMPLEMENTS  AND  WHALEBOATS 

The  earliest  method  of  killing  whales  was  by  means  of  the  bow  and 
arrow,  and  the  first  accounts  of  New  England  whaling  refer  to  the  har- 
poons as  being  made  of  stone  or  bone.  There  are  three  kinds,  however, 
that  have  been  popular  among  American  whalemen:  one  had  one  barb 


This  picture,  taken  by  Roy  C.  Andrews,  Esq.,  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  on  his  last  whaling  expedition,  shows  a  bomb  exploding  in  a  whale. 


WHALING  IMPLEMENTS. 

Figure  1.  Harpoon  with  one  barb.  Figure  2.  Harpoon  with  two  barbs.  Figure  3.  The 
"  toggle  iron."  Figure  4.  The  lance  for  killing  the  whale  by  reaching  its  "  life."  Figure  5.  A 
spade  used  in  small  boats  for  making  holes  in  the  blubber  after  capture  and  on  the  whaleship 
for  cutting  the  blubber  from  the  body  of  the  whale.  Figure  6.  A  bomb  lance.  Figure  7.  The 
"  boarding  knife  "  used  for  making  holes  in  the  strips  of  blubber  for  the  hoisting  hooks. 
Figure  8.  The  dipper  used  to  bail  oil  out  of  the  "  case,"  or  head,  and  from  the  try-works  into 
the  cooler.  Figure  9.  A  piece  of  whalebone  as  it  comes  from  the  whale.  Figure  10.  A  strainer 
used  for  draining  the  scraps  from  the  oil. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  39 

(Figure  1),  shown  on  the  preceding  page;  another  had  two  barbs 
(Figure  2);  and  the  third  was  the  "toggle  iron"  (Figure  3),  which  has 
already  been  described.  The  edges  were  sharpened  like  a  razor  and 
were  protected  by  a  wooden  cover  when  not  in  use.  They  were  so 
sharp  that  Melville  in  "Moby  Dick"  describes  his  whaling  hero,  Quee- 
queg,  as  shaving  with  one.  The  lance  (Figure  4)  which  was  used  after 
the  harpoon  had  been  driven  in  "to  the  hitches,"  or  its  entire  length, 
resembled  a  flat  spoon,  and  was  very  sharp  on  the  edges  and  on  the 
point.  The  long  line  was  attached  to  the  harpoon,  and  shorter  lines, 
called  "monkey  ropes,"  were  made  fast  to  the  lances. 

It  has  been  shown  by  the  records  of  one  James  Durbee,  a  veteran 
harpoon  maker  of  New  Bedford,  that  between  the  years  1828  and  1868 
he  made  and  sold  58,517  harpoons,  and  he  was  only  one  of  eight  or 
ten  manufacturers  of  whaling  implements  in  that  one  port. 

An  interesting  and  authentic  anecdote  of  a  lost  harpoon  describes 
how  a  Captain  Paddock  in  1802  struck  a  whale,  which  escaped  with  his 
iron,  and  in  1815,  thirteen  years  later,  the  same  captain  killed  the  same 
whale  and  recovered  his  lost  weapon. 

A  whaler  is  supplied  with  from  four  to  seven  whaleboats,  three  of 
which  are  usually  on  the  port  side,  one  on  the  starboard  side  near  the 
stern,  and  the  rest  are  on  deck;  it  was  the  improved  early  canoe,  sharp 
at  both  ends  so  as  to  make  a  dash  at  the  whale  and  then  be  able  to 
retreat  just  as  easily.  The  floor  was  very  flat  so  as  to  enable  the  boat 
to  be  turned  quickly  in  order  to  dodge  a  sudden  movement  of  the  whale. 
The  boat  was  about  twenty-eight  feet  long,  was  equipped  with  one  long 
steering  oar  and  five  rowing  oars,  and  a  sail  which  was  occasionally 
used;  also  paddles  were  sometimes  resorted  to  in  order  to  avoid  noise. 
In  the  bow  of  the  boat  two  seven-foot  harpoons  were  placed  ready 
for  use.  A  warp  was  securely  fastened  to  them,  and  to  this  warp 
was  secured,  after  the  boat  was  lowered,  a  line  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred fathoms  of  the  best  manila  two-thirds  of  an  inch  in  diameter, 
and  with  a  tensile  strength  of  about  three  tons.  It  ran  from  the 
harpoons  through  a  chock  or  groove  in  the  bow  to  a  coil  in  a  de- 
pressed box  near  by,  and  then  lengthwise  along  the  boat  to  the  stout 
loggerhead  or  post  in  the  stern,  around  which  it  made  a  turn  or 
two,  and  then  went  forward  to  the  line  tub  near  the  tub  oarsman.  Its 
twelve  or  eighteen  hundred  feet  of  line  were  coiled  in  this  tub,  with 
every  possible  precaution  to  prevent  fouling  in  the  outrun.  When 
the  rope  was  coiled  and  the  tub  was  covered,  it  was  said  to  resemble 
a  Christmas  cake  ready  to  present  to  the  whales.  The  loggerhead  was 
for  snubbing  and  managing  the  line  as  it  ran  out.  A  spare  line  was 
carried  in  another  tub.  A  boat  was  also  supplied  with  extra  harpoons, 
lances,  spades,  hatchet  with  which  to  cut  the  line  if  necessary,  lanterns, 
box  of  food,  keg  of  water,  and  compass,  weighing,  all  complete,  about 
twelve  hundred  pounds. 


^.2 
§£ 

si 

;?"S>£ 


riss 


I? 


a^3-SH 

SjlatlB 


C)    G)    0    O    0    O    Q) 

k^  r^  t^  r^  b^  cr^  t1^ 
r-3  (^"  co  -^  to  cd  i> 
ti  ti  ti  ti>  ti  too  ti 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  41 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   WHALES   AND   THEIR 
PRODUCTS 

There  are  many  different  kinds  of  whales;  namely,  sperm  whale, 
right  whale,  finback,  humpback,  razor-back,  sulphur  bottom  whale, 
and  the  narwhal.  The  two  former  species  are  the  more  often  sought 
after.  The  sperm  whale  was  so  called  because  it  was  the  only  kind 
that  furnished  sperm  oil,  which  is  a  richer  and  more  valuable  fluid 
than  the  ordinary  whale  oil.  This  species  was  also  called  "cachalot." 
It  has  one  spout  hole  through  which  it  blows  vapor  (not  water  as  is 
generally  supposed),  which  resembles  one's  breath  on  a  frosty  morning; 
it  has  also  about  fifty  teeth  on  the  lower  jaw  which  fit  into  sockets  in 
the  upper  jaw,  and  very  small  eyes  and  ears.  This  kind  of  whale 
usually  employed  its  mouth  as  a  means  of  defence,  whereas  the  right 
whale  used  its  immense  tail.  A  large-sized  whale  will  yield  about 
eighty  barrels  of  oil,  but  they  have  been  known  to  boil  even  larger 
amounts.  Captain  John  Rowland  of  New  Bedford  captured  two  whales 
which  produced  over  four  hundred  barrels  together.  The  tongue  alone 
often  produced  twenty-five  barrels.  In  order  to  attract  the  squid, 
or  cuttle-fish,  which  is  often  lured  by  a  shiny  object  from  the  dark 
recesses  in  the  great  depths  of  the  ocean,  the  jaw  and  inner  side  of  the 
Brobdingnagian  mouth  are  lined  with  a  silvery  membrane  of  phosphor- 
escent whiteness,  which  is  probably  the  only  thing  the  squid  sees  when 
the  dark  body  of  the  whale  is  at  the  great  depths  to  which  it  sometimes 
descends  for  food.  Huge  pieces  of  shark  and  hundreds  of  mackerel 
have  been  found  in  the  stomach  of  a  sperm  whale,  showing  what  a 
carnivorous  animal  the  sperm  whale  is. 

The  right  whale  was  so  called  because  it  Was  supposed  to  be  the 
"right"  whale  to  capture.  It  differs  from  the  sperm  whale  chiefly 
from  the  fact  that  it  has  long  strips  of  whalebone  in  its  mouth  wliich 
catch  the  small  fish  for  food,  the  whalebone  serving  in  place  of  thex£eeth 
of  the  other  species.  A  right  whale  usually  has  about  five  or  six  hiimjred 
of  these  parallel  strips,  which  weigh  in  all  about  one  ton;  they  are 
over  ten  feet  long,  are  fixed  to  its  upper  jaw,  and  hang  down  on  each 
side  of  the  tongue.  These  strips  are  fringed  with  hair,  which  hangs 
from  the  sides  of  the  mouth  and  through  which  the  whale  strains  the 
"brit,"  on  which  a  right  whale  feeds.  The  "brit"  is  a  little  reddish 
shrimp-shaped  jellyfish  which  occurs  in  such  quantities  in  various  parts 
of  the  ocean  that  often  the  sea  is  red  with  them.  With  its  mouth 
stretched  open,  resembling  more  than  anything  else  a  Venetian  blind, 
a  sulphur  bottom  or  right  whale  scoops,  at  a  speed  of  from  four  to  six 
miles  an  hour,  through  the  "brit"  just  under  the  surface  and  thus 
sifts  in  its  search  for  food  a  tract  fifteen  feet  wide  and  often  over  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  long.  As  the  whale  drives  through  the  water  much 
like  a  huge  black  scow,  the  sea  foams  through  the  slatted  bone,  packing 
the  jellyfish  upon  the  hair  sieve.  When  it  thinks  it  has  a  mouthful  it 
raises  the  lower  jaw  and,  keeping  the  lips  apart,  forces  the  great  spongy 
tongue  into  the  whalebone  sieve.  It  then  closes  its  lips,  swallows  the 


J 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  43 

catch  and  repeats  until  satiated.  Another  difference  between  the 
sperm  and  the  right  whale  is  that  the  latter  has  two  spout  holes  instead 
of  one. 

The  sperm  whale  is  found  in  the  warm  waters  off  the  coasts  of  Chili, 
Peru,  Japan,  New  Zealand,  Madagascar,  California,  and  Brazil;  in  the 
Caribbean,  China,  and  Red  Seas,  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and  .Persian 
Gulf;  off  the  Azores,  Java,  Galapagos,  Society,  Sandwich,  Fiji,  and 
Samoan  Islands;  and  off  the  Cape  de  Verdes.  The  right  whale  is  found 
in  the  high  latitudes  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  in  Baffin's  Bay,  in  the  Ochotsk 
Sea,  near  Tristan  d'Acunha  and  the  Desolation  Islands,  and  in  the 
Japan  Sea.  There  were  many  other  cruising  grounds,  but  these  were 
the  most  frequented. 

The  finback  is  even  longer  than  the  other  varieties,  but  whalers 
rarely  attack  it  owing  to  the  thickness  of  the  blubber  and  also  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  swims  so  fast  that,  to  use  a  favorite  expression  of 
whalemen,  it  "will  run  the  nails  out  of  the  bottom  of  the  boat." 

The  "narwhal,"  or  nostril  whale,  has  a  horn  five  to  ten  feet  long 
protruding  forward  from  its  jaw.  This  species  is  also  spoken  of  as  the 
"Unicorn."  Opinions  differ  as  to  the  use  of  this  horn;  some  think  it  is 
used  as  a  rake  to  turn  over  its  food  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  others 
think  it  is  employed  as  an  ice-piercer,  but  the  author  of  "Moby  Dick" 
suggests  that  it  would  make  an  exceedingly  good  folder  for  it  to  use  in 
reading  pamphlets.  In  ancient  times  this  narwhal's  tusk  was  used  to 
detect  poison  in  food  and  wine,  the  idea  being  prevalent  that  the  tusk 
would  be  discolored  if  it  came  in  contact  with  any  poisonous  substance. 
It  is  difficult  in  the  present  day  to  appreciate  the  wholesale  fear  of  poison 
which  existed  up  to  quite  modern  times.  This  fear  was  so  general  and 
pressing  that  no  one  of  any  position  dared  to  eat  and  drink  without  a 
previous  assurance  that  what  was  set  before  him  did  not  contain  some 
poison.  Some  authorities  vouch  for  the  fact  that  the  tusk  was  also 
used  as  salts  for  fainting  women. 

The  chief  products  of  the  fishery  are  sperm  and  whale  oil,  whalebone, 
and  ambergris.  Spermaceti,  meaning  a  foot  of  "sperm  oil,"  was  the 
most  valuable  and  was  found  only  in  the  sperm  whale.  This  oil  was 
formerly  used  chiefly  in  the  manufacture  of  sperm  candles,  and  at  one 
time  there  were  eight  factories  for  the  manufacture  of  these  candles  in 
New  England,  Nantucket  alone  turning  out  three  hundred  and  eighty 
tons  annually  before  the  war.  In  the  olden  times  this  oil  was  con- 
sidered a  sure  cure  for  almost  any  kind  of  disease  and  was  worth  its 
weight  in  silver.  Shakespeare  makes  reference  to  it  in  these  words — 
"The  sovereign'st  thing  on  earth  was  'parmaceti  for  an  inward  bruise." 
At  present  it  is  used  chiefly  in  making  refined  oils  for  lubricating. 

Whale  oil  was  procured  from  all  the  other  varieties  of  whales,  and 
was  formerly  used  as  an  illuminant  in  the  old  "whale  oil"  lamps;  it  is 
used  now  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  tanning  of  leather  and  in  the  manu- 
facture of  soaps,  but  chiefly  in  making  heavy  lubricating  oils. 

Whalebone  has  been  the  most  important  product  of  the  whale  fishery 
for  a  number  of  years,  and  in  fact  whaling  would  undoubtedly  have 


44  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

died  out  altogether  had  it  not  been  for  the  discovery  of  its  use  in  making 
women's  stays.  Many  a  whaleman  has  lost  his  life  in  the  endeavor  to 
improve  the  female  figure.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  fifty  years  or  more 
ago  this  product  was  always  thrown  away  as  worthless.  The  value 
has  gone  down  in  the  past  few  years  on  account  of  the  invention  of  steel 
stays,  which  take  the  place  of  whalebone. 

The  high  and  low  prices  of  these  three  commodities  are  of  interest. 
Sperm  oil  was  $2.55  per  gallon  in  1866,  and  is  46  cents  now.  Whale 
oil  was  $1.45  per  gallon  in  1865,  and  is  26  cents  now.  Whalebone  was 
$5.80  per  pound  in  1904,  Scents  in  1809,  and  is  $1.75  now. 

Ambergris,  the  rarest  and  most  valuable  of  all  the  products,  is  a 
secretion  from  the  intestines  of  the  sperm  whale  and  results  from  a 
disease.  It  is  a  very  rare  article  and  is  worth  almost  its  weight  in 
gold,  selling  usually  at  $300  a  pound.  Its  chief  use  is  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  fine  perfumeries.  It  is  believed  that  the  largest  amount  taken 
by  one  ship  was  brought  back  by  the  "Watchman"  of  Nantucket, 
which  vessel  found  eight  hundred  pounds  in  1858.  Small  amounts  were 
sold  every  year  in  New  Bedford  even  up  to  the  year  1913.  The  Turks 
used  it  in  cooking  and  also  carried  it  to  Mecca  for  the  same  purpose 
that  frankincense  is  carried  to  St.  Peter's  in  Rome.  Some  wine  mer- 
chants used  to  drop  a  little  into  their  wine  as  a  spice,  and  it  was  said  that 
the  Moors  used  it  in  green  tea  as  a  flavoring  to  present  to  their  guests. 

The  whale  is  used  for  food  chiefly  by  the  Japanese  and  Esquimaux, 
and  a  famous  doctor  belonging  to  the  latter  tribe  some  years  ago  rec- 
ommended the  blubber  for  infants.  In  fact,  the  whale  would  perhaps 
be  considered  a  good  dish  were  there  not  so  much  of  him.  Whale- 
meat  is  said  by  some  to  resemble  boarding-house  steak.  In  France, 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  tongue  was  considered  a  great  delicacy, 
and  by  some  epicures  the  brains,  mixed  with  flour,  were  much  sought 
after. 

The  largest  income  received  by  the  whalers  of  America  in  any  one 
year  was  in  1854,  when  they  netted  $10,802,594.20,  although  the  record 
size  of  the  fleet  was  attained  eight  years  before.  The  five  years  from 
1853  to  1857  inclusive  yielded  a  return  of  $51,063,659.59,  the  catch  of 
each  year  selling  for  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  total  value  of  the  whaling  fleet. 
The  total  value  of  the  cargoes  from  1804  to  1876  was  $331,947,480.51. 

Captain  W.  T.  Walker,  of  New  Bedford,  is  called  the  counting-house 
hero  of  the  American  Whale  Fishery.  He  purchased  in  1848  an  old 
whaleship  called  the  "Envoy"  that  was  about  to  be  broken  up,  and 
when  ready  for  sea  this  ship  stood  the  owner  $8,000.  He  could  get 
no  insurance;  nevertheless  he  "took  a  chance,"  and  after  a  three 
years'  voyage  he  returned  and  had  netted  for  himself  the  extraordinary 
sum  of  $138,450,  or  1,630  per  cent.  The  largest  profit,  however,  was 
made  by  the  "Pioneer"  of  New  London,  in  1865,  the  value  of  her  cargo 
being  $151,060.  For  a  short  voyage  Frederick  Fish,  who  has  been 
mentioned  before,  holds  the  record  for  his  ship  the  "Montreal,"  which 
brought  back  a  cargo  worth  over  $36,000  after  a  voyage  occupying 
only  two  months  and  fifteen  days. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  45 

There  were  many  unprofitable  voyages,  and  many  were  the  ships  that 
came  home  with  barrels  filled  with  salt  water  instead  of  oil  for  ballast. 
Some  vessels,  as  whalemen  say,  didn't  have  enough  oil  to  grease  their 
irons. 

METHODS  OF  CAPTURE  AND  "TRYING  OUT" 

"Whales  has  feelin's  as  well  as  anybody.  They  don't,  like  to  be  stuck 
in  the  gizzards  an'  hauled  alongside,  an'  cut  in,  an'  tried  out  in  those  here 
boilers  no  more'n  I  do!"  Barzy  Macks 's  Biology. 

When  the  lookout  at  the  masthead  shouts  out  "Thar  she  blows," 
or  "There  she  Whitewaters,"  the  whaleboats  are  gotten  out  and 
rowed  towards  the  whale,  while  signals  from  the  ship  show  from  time 
to  time  the  whereabouts  of  the  whales  and  directions  for  their  pursuit. 
The  first  man  to  "raise  oil" — an  expression  which  means  the  first  to  see 
a  whale — usually  received  a  plug  of  tobacco  or  some  other  prize,  and 
this  made  the  lookouts  more  keen. 

In  "Moby  Dick"  Melville  says  that  the  crew  pulls  to  the  refrain  "A 
Dead  Whale  or  a  Stove  Boat,"  which  became  such  well-known  by- words 
among  whalemen  that  when  Mr.  W.  W.  Crapo  last  year  presented  to 
New  Bedford  "The  Whaleman"  statue,  they  were  inscribed  upon  it. 
When  rowing  in  a  rough  sea  the  captain  cautioned  the  men  to  trim  the 
boat  and  not  to  "shift  their  tobacco." 

As  they  approach  the  whale  the  bow  oarsman,  who  is  the  harpooner, 
stands  up  at  a  signal  from  the  captain  of  the  boat,  who  is  steering,  and 
yells  out  to  "give  it  to  him."  The  next  order  is  probably  to  "stern  all" 
in  order  to  avoid  the  whale.  The  boat  is  probably  now  fast,  and  either 
the  whale  will  sound  and  run  out  the  line  at  a  terrific  rate  or  else  he  may 
race  away  dragging  the  boat  after  him,  which  whalemen  call  "A  Nan- 
tucket  Sleigh-Ride."  This  kind  of  sleigh-ride  was  often  at  railroad 
speed  and  was  perhaps  one  of  the  most  exhilarating  and  exciting  ex- 
periences in  the  line  of  sport.  An  empty  boat  would  certainly  capsize, 
but  a  whaleboat  had  six  trained,  strong,  athletic  men  sitting  on  her 
thwarts,  whose  skill  enabled  them  to  sway  their  bodies  to  the  motions 
of  the  boat  so  that  she  would  keep  an  even  keel,  even  though  her  speed 
might  plough  small  valleys  over  the  huge  swells  and  across  the  broad 
troughs  of  an  angry  Pacific,  and  great  billows  of  foam  piled  up  at  her 
bow  while  the  water  rushed  past  the  stern  like  a  mad  whirlpool.  The 
greatest  care  must  be  taken  not  to  allow  the  line  to  get  snarled  up  or  to 
let  a  turn  catch  an  arm  or  leg,  for  it  would  result  in  almost  immediate 
death  to  the  person  thus  entangled.  Conan  Doyle,  who  once  took  a 
trip  on  a  whaler,  tells  of  a  man  who  was  caught  by  the  line  and  hauled 
overboard  so  suddenly  that  he  was  hardly  seen  to  disappear.  One  of 
the  men  in  the  boat  grabbed  a  knife  to  cut  the  line,  whereupon  another 
seaman  shouted  out,  "Hold  your  hand,  the  whale'll  be  a  good  present  for 
the  widow!" 

There  is  one  case  known  where  a  man  who  had  been  hauled  down  by 
the  line  had  the  presence  of  mind  to  get  out  his  knife  and  cut  the  rope, 


OQ 

I 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  49 

which  allowed  him  to  come  to  the  surface  more  dead  than  alive;  also 
occasionally  the  entangled  arm  or  ankle  would  be  torn  off,  thus  freeing 
the  man  and  allowing  him  to  rise. 

Two  harpoons  were  thrown  if  possible,  and  then  it  was  customary 
for  the  harpooner  to  exchange  places  with  the  boat-steerer,  who  got 
ready  his  lance,  which  he  plunged  in  and  hauled  out  again  until  the 
whale  went  into  his  "flurry"  and  rolled  over  dead,  or  "fin  out"  as  it 
was  called.  Often  the  whale  would  get  frightened  or  "gallied,"  or 
would  jump  in  the  air  or  "breach,"  and  therefore  great  care  was  taken 
to  avoid  his  attacks.  When  the  whale  "  breaches  "  the  tail  becomes  very 
conspicuous,  and  one  old  salt  used  to  say  that  an  additional  tail  appeared 
after  every  glass  of  grog. 

Scoresby  speaks  of  a  whale  which  drew  out  from  the  different  boats 
ten  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty  yards,  or  nearly  six  miles,  of  rope. 
It  was  necessary  when  the  line  of  one  boat  was  nearly  exhausted  to 
bend  on  the  end  to  a  new  rope  in  another  boat  and  so  on,  and  of  course 
often  miles  of  rope  and  many  harpoons  would  be  lost  if  the  whale 
escaped.  When  the  line  was  drawn  out  rapidly  it  was  necessary  to 
pour  water  over  the  snub  post  to  keep  the  rope  from  burning. 

There  have  been  races  almost  as  exciting  as  a  Harvard-Yale  race 
when  the  boats  of  different  nations  have  been  dashing  for  a  whale, 
which  is  prized  at  between  three  thousand  and  four  thousand  dollars. 
Many  years  ago  an  English,  a  French,  a  Dutch,  and  an  American  ship 
lay  becalmed  in  the  Pacific,  when  suddenly  a  whale  was  "raised." 
All  four  ships  lowered  and  raced  across  the  waters,  with  the  American 
in  the  rear.  In  a  few  minutes  the  Yankee  passed  the  Dutchman,  who 
yelled  "donner  und  blitzen!"  The  American  captain  encouraged  his 
men  by  shouting  "Thar  she  blows,  she's  an  eighty-barreler,  break  the 
oars,  lads!"  and  soon  the  French  were  left  astern  with  curses  of  "Le 
diable."  The  Englishmen  were  still  ahead;  the  American  boat-steerer 
now  began  to  help  the  stroke  oarsman  by  pushing  his  oar,  and  their 
boat  crept  up  slowly  upon  their  only  rivals.  The  English  boat- 
steerer  also  grabbed  his  stroke's  oar,  but  it  snapped  off  at  the  rowlock, 
and  the  Americans  overtook  them  and  captured  the  whale.  Another 
international  race  took  place  in  Delagoa  Bay,  which  has  become  a 
classic  among  American  whalemen.  Again  an  English  and  a  Yankee 
whaleboat  were  chasing  a  whale,  and,  in  some  manner,  the  former  was 
able  to  cut  in  between  the  whale  and  the  Americans,  and  as  the  English 
harpooner  was  reaching  for  his  iron,  the  American  harpooner  "pitch- 
poled"  his  harpoon  over  the  English  boat,  and  his  iron  made  fast. 

After  a  capture  came  the  long,  hard  row  back  to  the  ship,  then  the 
tedious  process  of  "cutting  in"  and  "trying  out."  First  of  all  the 
head,  or  "case,"  was  cut  off  and  tied  astern  while  the  strips  of  blubber 
were  cut  from  the  body  and  hauled  on  board,  as  next  shown,  by 
means  of  huge  tackles  from  the  mast.  Blubber  averages  in  thickness 
from  twelve  to  eighteen  inches,  and  if  cut  four  and  one-half  inches 
thick  would  carpet  a  room  sixty-six  feet  long  by  twenty-seven  wide. 
Then  the  head  was  either  bailed  out,  if  it  were  a  sperm  whale,  or  else 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  51 

the  whalebone  was  taken  in,  if  it  were  a  right  whale.  The  strips  or 
"blanket  pieces"  were  then  minced,  and  after  boiling,  the  oil  was 
cooled  and  stored  away  in  barrels  below  deck.  The  "try-works"  con- 
sisted of  iron  pots  set  in  brick  furnaces,  and  there  were  pans  of  water 
underneath  to  prevent  the  decks  from  burning.  This  process  of  boil- 
ing the  oil  was  most  irksome  and  disagreeable  as  the  men  were  soaked 
in  oil  from  head  to  foot,  and  the  smell  of  the  burning  fluid  was  so  frightful 
that  it  has  often  been  alluded  to  as  Hell  on  a  large  scale,  and  was 
usually  called  a  "squantum,"  which  is  the  Nantucket  word  for  a 
picnic;  nevertheless,  old  whalers  delighted  in  it. 

It  is  a  superstition  among  some  whalemen  that  a  ship  which  for  once 
has  a  sperm  whale's  head  on  her  starboard  quarter,  and  a  right  whale's 
on  her  port  side,  will  never  afterwards  capsize. 

THE  PERILS  OF  WHALING 

Whalemen  not  only  had  to  undergo  the  perils  of  the  sea,  but  in 
addition  ran  the  danger  of  being  killed  by  the  whale  and  of  being 
attacked  by  savages  at  the  ports  where  it  was  often  necessary  to  land 
for  food  and  water.  Also  in  cases  of  accident  the  whaleship  was  usually 
off  the  regular  cruise  followed  by  the  merchantmen  and  therefore  less 
likely  to  be  assisted  by  other  vessels.  Furthermore,  the  long  voyages, 
poor  food,  and  the  many  dangers  of  whaling  induced  many  mutinies. 

The  worst  massacre  occurred  on  the  "Awashonks,"  of  Falmouth,  in 
1835,  near  the  Marshall  Islands.  The  natives  came  on  board  in  large 
numbers  and  seemed  most  friendly,  when,  on  a  given  signal,  they  killed 
the  captain  and  many  of  the  crew.  Finally  the  seamen  laid  a  charge 
of  dynamite  under  a  hatchway  where  the  savages  were  sitting,  and 
blew  most  of  them  to  pieces,  the  crew  being  then  enabled  to  recapture 
the  vessel.  A  few  years  later,  when  the  "Sharon"  of  Fairhaven  was 
cruising  not  far  from  Ascension  Island,  the  crew  lowered  for  a 
whale,  and  upon  returning  to  the  ship  it  was  discovered  that  three  of 
the  "Kanaka"  crew,  recently  engaged,  had  taken  charge  of  the  ship 
and  had  killed  the  captain.  The  first  mate  in  the  whaleboat  did 
not  dare  attack,  but  the  third  mate,  Benjamin  Clough,  who  was  only 
nineteen  years  old,  swam  to  the  ship  in  the  darkness,  climbed  up  the 
rudder,  shot  two  of  the  mutineers,  and  had  a  hand-to-hand  encounter 
with  the  third,  who  died  soon  afterwards.  The  first  mate  then  re- 
turned on  board.  Clough  was  made  captain  of  a  ship  immediately 
upon  his  return  to  Fairhaven.  Still  another  mutiny  took  place  on  the 
ship  "Junior"  which  sailed  from  New  Bedford  in  1857,  most  of 
the  officers  being  killed.  Plummer,  the  ringleader,  wrote  a  story  of  the 
mutiny  in  the  log  book,  which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  New 
Bedford  Library,  and  the  account  was  signed  by  the  five  mutineers  in 
order  to  clear  the  rest  of  the  men  on  board.  The  five  murderers  on 
sighting  land  lowered  two  whaleboats  with  all  the  plunder  they  could 
find  and  rowed  ashore.  The  mutineers  were  subsequently  captured 
and  were  brought  in  cages  to  Boston,  where  they  were  defended  by 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  53 

Benjamin  F.  Butler.  Davis,  the  author  of  "Nimrod  of  the  Sea,"  men- 
tions a  quarrel  on  board  the  "Chelsea,"  which  ended  by  the  men  all 
signing  a  "round  robin"  to  return  to  duty,  and  in  order  that  no  name 
should  head  the  list  the  signatures  were  set  down  in  a  circle,  like  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel,  from  which  possibly  comes  the  word  "ringleader." 

The  most  fearful  mutiny  happened  on  the  "Globe"  of  Nantucket, 
in  1822.  A  boat-steerer  called  Comstock  laid  a  plot  which  resulted  in 
the  death  of  all  the  officers  of  the  ship,  and  those  who  were  not  killed 
outright  were  thrown  overboard.  Comstock  then  took  charge  of  the 
ship,  and  stated  that  if  any  man  disobeyed  him,  he  would  be  put  to 
death  by  being  boiled  in  the  "try-pots."  The  ringleader  was  finally 
killed  by  some  of  the  crew,  and  the  ship  brought  into  port. 

Captain  Warrens,  of  the  whaler  "Greenland,"  in  1775,  told  a  most 
thrilling  narrative,  which  shows  the  perils  of  Arctic  whaling,  and  is  the 
most  weird  and  grewsome  of  all  whaling  yarns.  While  becalmed  one 
day  he  sighted  a  vessel  with  rigging  dismantled,  and  he  immediately 
lowered  and  rowed  over  to  her.  Upon  boarding  the  ship  he  found 
seated  at  the  cabin  table  the  corpse  of  a  man.  He  held  a  pen  in  his 
hand,  and  the  log  book  was  on  the  table  in  front  of  him.  The  last 
entry  was  "Nov.  14,  1762.  We  have  now  been  enclosed  in  the  ice 
seventeen  days.  The  fire  went  out  yesterday  and  our  master  has  been 
trying  ever  since  to  kindle  it  again  without  success.  His  wife  died  this 
morning.  There  is  no  relief."  Other  corpses  were  found  in  the  cabin 
and  a  number  of  sailors  in  the  forward  part  of  the  ship.  The  vessel 
had  been  frozen  in  the  ice  for  thirteen  years ! 

There  are  many  exciting  accounts  of  accidents  to  whaleboats,  and  a 
few  are  worth  mentioning.  Captain  Sparks,  of  the  "Edward  Lee" 
of  Provincetown,  in  1881,  chased  a  whale  and  finally  lost  him.  He 
and  his  crew  endeavored  to  find  his  ship,  but  for  some  reason  were  un- 
able to  do  so.  The  nearest  land  was  one  thousand  miles  away,  and 
with  no  food  or  water  the  prospect  was  not  very  encouraging.  For 
six  days  they  sailed  on,  when  by  good  fortune  they  killed  a  whale,  and 
finally  were  picked  up  and  brought  to  land. 

Another  incident  shows  how  a  whale  will  sometimes  fight.  Captain 
Morse,  of  the  "Hector"  of  New  Bedford,  had  his  boat  attacked 
by  a  whale,  which  grabbed  the  bow  in  its  mouth,  shaking  the  crew 
and  implements  in  all  directions.  The  mate  came  to  the  rescue, 
and  the  whale  at  once  started  to  chase  his  boat,  snapping  its  jaws  less 
than  a  foot  behind  the  stern.  The  crew  rowed  desperately  and  suc- 
ceeded in  dodging  its  attacks,  until  finally  the  animal  turned  over  to 
get  more  air,  and  a  well-driven  lance  luckily  killed  it.  The  harpoons 
of  the  "Barclay"  were  found  in  it,  and  it  was  learned  that  this  same 
whale  had  killed  the  "Barclay's"  captain  only  three  days  before.  An- 
other incident  shows  the  fierceness  of  the  attack  of  a  fighting  whale. 
The  "Osceola  3rd,"  of  New  Bedford,  shot  thirty-one  bombs  into  a 
whale  before  it  was  killed. 

Captain  Davis,  in  "Nimrod  of  the  Sea,"  mentions  an  occurrence  in 
which  a  whale  attacked  one  of  the  men  who  had  been  hauled  from  the 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  55 

whaleboat.  Then  ensued  a  fight,  and  every  time  the  monster  swam  for 
him  he  was  obliged  to  dive.  The  mate  rushed  into  the  encounter  with 
his  boat  and  finally  succeeded  in  killing  the  whale.  Another  captain 
described  how  the  crew  of  his  whaleboat  was  obliged  to  cling  all  night  on 
the  body  of  a  dead  whale  until  help  came  at  daybreak.  It  happened 
to  be  Christmas  evening,  and  the  famished  men  obtained  their  Christ- 
mas dinner  by  digging  from  the  back  of  the  dead  animal  enough  meat  to 
satisfy  their  hunger.  If  a  whaleboat  were  upset,  and  it  was  seen  that 
the  crew  had  something  to  hold  on  to  in  order  to  prevent  going  under, 
it  was  often  a  long  time  before  the  other  boats  rendered  assistance,  it 
being  a  truism  among  whalemen  that  whales  were  of  much  higher  com- 
mercial value  than  men. 

Captain  Hosmer,  of  the  bark  "Janet"  of  Westport  (near  New  Bed- 
ford), met  with  a  horrible  experience  off  the  coast  of  Peru  in  1849.  He 
had  just  secured  a  whale,  and  in  towing  it  back  to  his  ship  his  boat  was 
capsized.  He  immediately  displayed  distress  signals,  and  the  "Janet" 
sailed  towards  the  men  who  clung  to  the  small  boat,  when  suddenly,  to 
his  amazement  and  horror,  the  ship  swung  off  and  headed  in  another 
direction.  They  could  see  her  sailing  about  searching  for  them,  but 
were  unable  to  attract  her  attention,  and  finally,  as  the  distance  between 
them  increased,  they  set  sail  towards  the  nearest  land,  after  bailing  out 
their  boat  with  difficulty,  and  having  lost  one  man  by  drowning.  The 
nearest  coast  was  over  one  thousand  miles  away,  and  they  had  not  a 
drop  of  water  or  a  morsel  of  food.  At  the  end  of  seven  days  lots  were 
cast  to  decide  who  should  be  killed  in  order  that  the  rest  might  live. 
Four  more  of  the  crew  died,  and  after  twenty  days  the  two  survivors 
landed  on  an  island  and  were  later  picked  up  by  the  "Leonidas"  of  New 
Bedford. 

There  are  three  cases  known  to  history  of  a  whale  sinking  a  ship. 
The  "Essex,"  of  Nantucket,  was  attacked  by  a  huge  whale  in  1819, 
and  twice  did  the  animal  make  a  rush  at  the  ship,  which  became  sub- 
merged in  a  few  minutes.  Owen  Chase,  the  first  mate,  wrote  an  account 
of  the  accident  and  subsequent  sufferings  of  the  crew.  Three  whale- 
boats  set  sail  for  the  Marquesas  Islands.  One  boat  was  never  heard 
from;  another  was  picked  up  by  an  English  brig  with  only  three 
of  the  crew  alive ;  and  the  third  with  only  two  survivors,  having  sailed 
over  twenty -five  hundred  miles,  was  picked  up  by  a  Nantucket  vessel, 
three  months  after  the  accident.  Captain  Pollard,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  "Essex"  at  this  time,  had  previously  been  one  of  the  crew  on 
Fulton's  "Claremont"  on  his  first  trip  up  the  Hudson.  He  survived 
the  frightful  experience,  but  nothing  could  induce  him  ever  to  refer 
to  it.  He  finally  abandoned  the  sea  and  became  a  police  officer  in 
Nantucket. 

The  "Ann  Alexander"  of  New  Bedford,  which  is  shown  in  the  next 
cut,  met  a  similar  fate  in  1850,  and  the  ship  sank  so  quickly  that  only 
one  day's  supplies  were  saved.  With  the  horror  of  the  "Essex"  star- 
ing them  in  the  face  the  crew  set  sail  in  the  small  boats,  and  with  great 
good  fortune  in  two  days  sighted  the  "Nantucket"  and  were  taken 


58  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

on  board.  Five  months  after  this  incident  the  "Rebecca  Sims,"  of 
New  Bedford,  killed  a  whale,  and  to  the  great  surprise  of  the  crew,  the 
irons  of  the  "Ann  Alexander"  were  discovered  in  its  body,  and  there 
were  also  several  pieces  of  the  ship's  timber  imbedded  in  its  head. 

The  latest  of  the  three  accidents  happened  to  the  bark  "Kathleen" 
in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  1902,  and  the  picture  shows  her  about  to 
sink  after  having  been  rammed  by  a  whale.  The  three  flags  at  the 
mastheads  are  signals  to  the  three  boats  to  return  at  once,  but  as 
each  one  was  fast  to  a  whale,  they  were  loath  to  obey  the  signals. 
The  whale  showing  its  "flukes"  at  the  right  of  the  picture  is  the  one  that 
stove  the  hole  in  the  vessel.  The  "Kathleen"  also  had  a  whale  along- 
side, making  four  just  captured.  The  accident  meant  a  loss,  not  count- 
ing the  vessel  and  oil  on  board,  of  ten  to  twelve  thousand  dollars. 
Captain  Jenkins,  who  was  in  command,  lowered  with  Mrs.  Jenkins, 
a  parrot,  and  nineteen  of  the  crew,  and  with  difficulty  rowed  to  the  other 
boats,  which  took  in  their  share  of  the  men  from  the  captain's  over- 
crowded one.  Captain  Jenkins  declares  that  the  parrot,  when  removed 
from  its  home  on  the  "Kathleen,"  swore  that  "he  would  be  damned 
if  he'd  ever  go  to  sea  again!"  Three  boat  loads  were  discovered  by 
a  Glasgow  ship,  but  the  fourth  had  to  sail  over  one  thousand  miles  to 
the  Barbadoes.  Captain  Jenkins  is  to-day  living  in  South  Dartmouth. 
He  has  written  a  small  volume  on  the  loss  of  his  ship  and  is  such  a 
well-known  whaleman  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  occupied  the 
platform  at  the  time  of  the  unveiling  of  "The  Whaleman"  statue. 

THE   " CATALPA "  EXPEDITION 

While  not  primarily  a  whaling  voyage,  the  "Catalpa"  Expedition 
should  be  outlined  in  any  account  of  whaling  adventures. 

A  number  of  Irish  subjects  who  had  joined  the  Fenian  conspiracy 
of  1866  had  been  banished  to  Australia  for  life  and  were  serving  in  the 
English  penal  colony  at  Freeman  tie.  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  had  escaped 
with  the  aid  of  a  whaleship  and  immediately  began  to  form  a  plot  to 
release  his  fellow  prisoners.  O'Reilly  suggested  a  whaleship  for  the 
rescue,  chiefly  because  it  would  create  little  suspicion,  as  whaleships  were 
frequently  seen  off  the  coast  of  Australia.  Captain  H.  C.  Hathaway, 
who  was  the  head  of  the  night  police  force  at  New  Bedford,  was  then 
consulted,  and  he  recommended  their  approaching  a  certain  George  S. 
Anthony,  a  most  successful  whaler.  Accordingly  a  meeting  was  held 
in  a  dark  room,  and  Captain  Anthony  finally  accepted  the  leadership 
of  the  expedition,  probably  not  realizing  fully  the  danger  involved. 
The  "Catalpa"  was  selected,  and  she  sailed  from  New  Bedford  on  April 
29,  1875,  not  even  an  officer  sharing  the  secret  with  the  brave  com- 
mander. The  ship  actually  captured  whales  and  finally  arrived  off 
Bunbury  on  the  coast  of  Australia.  In  the  mean  time  a  man  called 
John  J.  Breslin,  who  used  to  be  a  freight  agent  in  Boston,  had  gone  to 
Australia  with  a  fellow  conspirator  to  arrange  the  land  end  of  the 
scheme.  On  the  day  appointed  Captain  Anthony  rowed  ashore  with 


60  WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


his  crew,  and  with  great  difficulty  Breslin  and  his  six  prisoners,  who 
had  escaped  from  their  work  in  the  woods,  were  placed  on  board  the 
rowboat,  which  set  out  to  sea  to  join  the  "Catalpa,"  some  miles  off 
shore.  A  storm  came  up,  but  by  good  fortune  and  skilful  seamanship, 
after  a  whole  day  and  night,  the  "Catalpa"  was  sighted.  At  the 
same  time  the  English  cruiser  "Georgette"  was  seen  coming  out  of 
Freemantle  in  search  of  the  refugees.  By  great  luck  for  some  reason 
she  never  noticed  the  small  whaleboat  and  after  questioning  the 
"Catalpa"  put  back  towards  the  shore.  The  rescued  and  rescuers 
rowed  on  and  finally  were  observed  by  the  men  on  the  "Catalpa." 
At  the  same  time  Captain  Anthony  noticed  with  horror  that  there  was 
an  armed  guard  boat  almost  as  near  the  "Catalpa"  as  was  his  boat. 
It  was  a  terrific  race,  but  the  whaleboat  arrived  a  few  seconds  ahead  and 
the  occupants  climbed  on  board  ;  the  officers  had  lost,  and  the  prisoners 
were  free.  The  rescued  men  knew  their  pursuers  and,  leaning  over  the 
rail  of  the  "Catalpa,"  wished  them  "Good  morning,"  and  there  was 
nothing  for  the  officers  to  do  but  to  answer  them  in  the  same  tone. 
When  the  captain  reached  home  he  weighed  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  pounds,  having  lost  thirty-seven  pounds  on  the  voyage,  through 
worry  and  excitement.  The  police  of  Western  Australia  endeavored 
to  get  these  prisoners  returned,  but  as  their  letter  was  addressed  to  the 
same  Captain  Hathaway  who  assisted  the  plotters  of  the  expedition, 
there  was  not  much  help  in  this  direction! 

It  is  a  very  curious  fact  that  at  the  precise  moment  that  Disraeli  was 
telling  the  House  of  Lords  that  he  would  not  release  these  prisoners 
they  were  free  on  the  Yankee  ship.  Receptions  were  held  in  New 
Bedford  and  Boston  in  honor  of  Captain  Anthony  and  the  other  res- 
cuers, and  the  daring  captain  will  always  be  a  hero  with  the  Irish 
people. 

DECLINE  OF  WHALING  AND  THE  CAUSES 

The  first  whaler  to  sail  from  San  Francisco  was  the  "  Popftnunnett  " 
in  the  year  1850,  and  for  thirty  years  after  there  were  a  few  whaleships 
registered  in  this  port.  Steam  whalers  were  introduced  into  the  Ameri- 
can fleet  in  1880,  when  New  Bedford  sent  out  one,  but  it  was  the  adop- 
tion of  steam  and  the  proximity  to  the  Arctic  that  made  San  Francisco 
a  whaling  port  at  the  time  other  places  were  giving  up  the  pursuit.  In 
1893  there  were  thirty-three  vessels  enrolled  there,  many  of  which  had 
been  transferred  from  the  Eastern  cities.  Since  1895  Boston,  New 
Bedford,  Provincetown,  and  San  Francisco  have  been  the  only  places 
from  which  whalers  have  been  regularly  registered,  and  in  1903  Boston 
recorded  her  last  whaleship. 

There  are  a  number  of  reasons  for  the  decline  ofjthfi-ghale  fishery, 


-  , 

butJJie  chief  factor  was  undoubtedly  the  introf*"^™  oL-keroseneT 
THe'  opening  of  the  first  oil  well  in  Pennsylvania  sealed  the^ate  of 
whaling.  Henceforth  sperm  candles  were  used  for  ornament,  and  whale 
oil  lamps  soon  became  interesting  relics.  Other  causes  doubtless  con- 


A  modern  steam  whaler  in  the  act  of  shooting  a  harpoon  gun. 


The  modern  harpoon  gun,  showing  line  with  which  to  hold  the  whale. 


WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


tributed  to  this  rapid  decline;  for  instance,  the  financial  crisis  of  1857; 
the  uncertainty  of  the  business,  especially  ^since  Arctic  whaling  was 
begun^m  184»;~~thc  iiici'cascchTosT~6TTirting  out  the  ships  foFTonger 
voyages;  and  the  California  gold  craze  in  1849,  when  many  crews  and 
officers  deserted.  Also  the  rise  of  the  cotton  industry  from  about  1850 
to  1875  in  New  Bedford  drew  a  great  deal  of  capital  from  the  uncertain 
whale  fishery  to  the  more  conservative  investments  in  cotton  mills, 
which  were  successful  from  the  very  start.  As  whaling  died  out  the 
mills  were  built  up,  and  it  is  owing  to  these  same  mills  that  the 
city  was  saved  from  becoming  a  deserted  fishing  village.  Then  later 
even  the  lubricating  oils  began  to  be  made  from  the  residuum  of  kero- 


Whale-meat  in  Japan  awaiting  shipment  to  market.  Tt  is  sold  to  the  poorer 
classes  in  all  the  large  towns  at  prices  which  range  from  7  to  8  cents  a  pound.  One 
whale  yields  as  much  meat  as  a  herd  of  100  cattle. 

sene,  and  about  the  same  time  wax  was  invented  for  candles,  which 
again  robbed  the  whaling  industry  of  another  market  for  oil.  Soon 
came  the  Civil  War,  in  which  many  vessels  were  captured  or  destroyed, 
then  followed  the  sinking  of  forty  or  more  vessels  of  the  Charleston 
Stone  Fleet  described  elsewhere,  and  finally  came  the  Arctic  disasters 
of  1871  and  1876,  all  of  which  hastened  the  end  of  the  industry. 

WHALING  OF  TO-DAY 

Whaling  will  doubtless  be  carried  on  from  San  Francisco  in  a  small 
way  as  long  as  there  is  any  demand  for  whalebone,  and  from  New 
Bedford  and  Provincetown  while  there  is  any  market  for  sperm  and 


*..'•  :*'i :  V  .     '•••*: 

•        •*  *•   •      •  •  *  *.  •  •  *•  •  • !  *  ."  •*• 

•,*•••••••          ••     •• 

WHALE  FISHERY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 63 

whale  oil.  Most  of  the  Pacific  steam  whalers  are  now  provided  with  a 
harpoon  gun  invented  by  Svend  Foyn,  a  Norwegian.  This  gun  is 
placed  in  the  bow,  and  to  the  harpoon  is  attached  a  rope  with  which 
to  play  the  whale,  as  one  does  a  fish  with  a  rod  and  reel,  but  there  is 
little  romance  in  this  method  of  whaling. 

In  modern  whaling  the  flesh  is  made  into  guano  and  the  bones  and 
blood  into  fertilizer,  and  even  the  water  in  which  the  blubber  has 
been  "tried  out"  is  used  in  making  glue.  The  meat  is  to-day  sold 
to  Japan,  and,  if  the  weather  is  very  cold  and  the  supply  of  fish  is 
limited,  a  whale  might  bring  there  as  much  as  four  thousand  dollars 
by  utilizing  all  the  by-products  as  well  as  the  meat,  which  is  some- 
times canned.  In  America  a  whale  is  now  valued  at  about  two  hundred 
dollars,  but,  if  the  entire  carcass  is  utilized,  it  might  bring  one  thousand 
dollars. 

From  the  Whalemen's  Shipping  List,  still  published  in  New  Bedford, 
it  can  be  figured  that  the  total  whaling  fleet  in  America  last  year  (1913) 
consisted  of  thirty-four  vessels,  twenty  hailing  from  New  Bedford, 
eleven  from  San  Francisco,  two  from  Provincetown,  and  one  from 
Stamford,  Conn.  The  Atlantic  fleet,  however,  reported  a  total  catch  of 
over  twenty  thousand  barrels  of  sperm  oil  and  one  thousand  pounds 
of  whalebone  during  the  year  1913,  which  is  a  considerably  larger 
amount  than  for  the  year  previous. 

Whaling  in  stout  wooden  ships  on  the  far  seas  of  the  East  and  the 
West  is  no  longer  carried  on,  for  the  glory  and  the  profit  of  the  industry 
have  gone  never  to  return.  Substitute  products  have  come  in,  and  to- 
day the  little  whaling  that  is  still  done  is  along  the  coasts  of  the  Antarctic 
and  Arctic  Oceans,  off  the  shores  of  Western  Africa,  Northern  Japan, 
New  Zealand,  California,  and  South  America,  and  in  the  main  it  is 
carried  on  in  stout  iron  steamers.  Ere  long  the  last  whaleship  will 
disappear  from  the  sea  and  only  the  romance  of  a  great  industry  will 
remain. 


Corpora  £aa  rqau<&nt  immania  toflrrr  Cfta-  Sif  varjs   ttfu,  varyi  frriunmr  a 

A  very  old  picture  of  whale-killing  in  the  17th  century. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

TH-          AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


APR    8  1939 


.HIM 


193S 


22Dec'49HJ 


JAH  4 


30  1975 


5MR11I97P 


EC.C«.*»* 


LD  21-5m-I,'39(7053s7 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


12,000(11/95) 


